Sealed Away
by SkyKly
Summary: After being defeated by Link and getting sealed away in the four sword for the second time, the infamous wind sorcerer Vaati is visited by the goddesses and offered a chance at redemption. Will he take the chance to rid himself of the demon inside, or will he refuse and be subject to the goddesses wrath and punishment?
1. Prologue

**Hey, this is my first story far, and I hope you all enjoy it! Follows/favourites and reviews are much appreciated, and I love to hear feedback :)**

* * *

Once upon a time in the kingdom of Hyrule, a truly legendary series of events took place. But everyone knows that old tale, don't they? It is only one of the greatest tales of our time, so of course you have heard of it before.

What, you don't recall having ever heard this old story before? Why, settle down, my friend, and prepare to hear the most glorious narrative of a legend.

It all began precisely eight thousand years ago today in an older Hyrule than it is now, on the day of the annual Picori festival, fair and sword fighting tournament. Picori, also known as the Minish, are a tiny race that devotes their lives to helping us humans. Honestly, how do you think your lost objects suddenly appear after having been missing for a long while, and who do you think hides rupees in grass and under rocks for us humans to find? The Minish do!

As I was saying, it was the day of the Picori festival, and the young princess Zelda was very excited to attend. Her royal Highness, along with her childhood friend Link, raced through Castle Town playing games and looking at street vendor's wares. All seemed fine and dandy, as it was a glorious day and all the townsfolk were enjoying themselves.

Then it came time to watch the sword fighting tournament, and boy, what a show that was said to have been! All of the very best swordsmen and experienced knights from all around the region came to test their skills at the tournament to win the prize of the legendary Picori blade, a sword said to have been made by the Minish themselves. Yet the winner of the tournament was an unexpected one.

It wasn't a burly guard nor an experienced sword wielder, but a young boy who was about the same age as the princess was at the time. As you can probably guess, he was no ordinary child, in both ability and physical appearance. He was swift as the wind and light on his feet, and with a single swing of his sword it seemed as though the most powerful storm was his ally. When he spun in a full out spin attack it was like a hurricane surrounded him, not only adding force to the blade of his sword, but acting as a protective shield as well. His moves were preformed with such grace and mastery that the crowd went wild for him, and couldn't help but cheer at his many victories.

The boy's strange appearance was something else all together, and his looks attracted lots of comments and stares that day. His skin was pale, tinged with a purple color that gave him a look that was almost sickly. Light lavender hair fell down below his shoulders and long bangs covered half of his face, coming to a point just underneath his chin. The remaining visible eye was bright red and striking, and underneath the eye was a black birthmark shaped like a T.

He was short and frail looking, built like a dancer with a slender frame and proud demeanour. Clothed in a tunic of purple, vibrant red shorts and sandals, a golden belt, and a cape in the most majestic violet hue that swirled around his ankles made him look like royalty. Most stunning of all was his lovely purple hat, complete with a gold trim and a gleaming ruby coloured gemstone set in the middle. He had this gleam in his eye that suggested more experience than his age implied, and he walked with this vain arrogance, head always held high.

This boy's name was Vaati. Sounds familiar, you say? I'm not at all surprised.

So young Vaati won the tournament, to the great delight of the many spectators. By winning the tournament he would receive the grand prize, the great Picori blade, and they say you could see a sort of mad happiness gleam in Vaati's eyes as he approached the blade to claim it as his prize. Thus the troubles began.

Vaati approached the blade with a sinister aura around himself. Warning bells started to go off in people's heads that something bad was about to occur, and the crowd quickly thinned out. Instead of pulling the Picori blade from its chest with utmost care, Vaati broke the blade with malicious intent, opening the sacred Bound Chest that it resided in and releasing all the monsters that had been sealed away inside, flooding Hyrule with these beasts. Vaati then turned Princess Zelda to stone and fled.

Now, this is where the princess's childhood friend Link makes his appearance. The only way to break the curse put on Zelda was to use the magic of the Picori blade, but since the blade was now broken its magic wouldn't work. To fix the blade the help of the Minish was necessary, but since Minish folk are only visible to children, Link was the only one who would be able to find them to ask for their help in restoring the blade. He wished to help save his princess, so he decided to go look for the Minish, and set out on his adventure.

Link journeyed into the woods to look for the Minish, and stumbled upon a talking green hat named Ezlo who claimed he was also looking to end a curse set upon him by Vaati. Together, Link and Ezlo found the Minish and went through dangerous temples to gather the four elements needed to mend the blade. Once the elements were found, the Minish blacksmith then mended the sword. Link and Ezlo then went off to defeat Vaati and break the curse he set on Zelda once and for all.

Vaati's hideout was at the Palace of Winds, a majestic fortress floating up in the sky. There he kept Zelda, waiting until the time was right to end her. You see, Vaati didn't really want just a pretty princess statue to decorate his Palace of Winds, oh no! Princess Zelda, being holder of the triforce of wisdom as well as being pure of heart, contained within her a powerful substance called the light force. Vaati's main goal was to drain Zelda of her light force to obtain its power and to gain God like status in the world, even though that by taking Zelda's light force, the princess would die.

Why did Vaati want all that power, do you ask? Well, Vaati wasn't always evil. Once, he was a happy little Minish, training to become a sage under his master. But Vaati's once pure heart was tainted by the evil in the hearts of men. Slowly he changed, growing cold and closed off to the world. One day his master showed him a completed project he had been working on with the intent of presenting it to the humans at that years Picori festival as a humble gift. It was a hat with magical properties called the wishing cap. The wearer of this magical hat would have their any wish granted. Vaati took the hat, and with it he wished to be the world's greatest sorcerer, and when he got these powers he found they specialized in elemental wind spells. With these new abilities, Vaati turned his master into a hat to mock him on his creation having landed in the wrong hands, then he took the form of a Hylian and made his way to the Picori festival, looking for the light force.

Yes, Vaati's master was Ezlo, who was once a Minish sage before he was turned into a hat.

So Link and Ezlo made their way to the Palace of Winds. They got there just as Zelda was in the process of having her life force drained by Vaati. Claiming that he was already strong enough to take on Link, Vaati transformed into a huge, looming demon eye. In his most powerful form, he put up quite the epic fight against our hero Link, but with the power of the goddesses on Links side, Link prevailed and won the fight. He sealed Vaati away in the sword and put an end to the curses set on Princess Zelda and Ezlo. The Minish were ever grateful, and the wind mage Vaati has been sealed away ever since.

That is, until now...

Surely you've heard the news about how our fair princess was recently kidnapped by a gruesome winged monster? Well, that monster is none other than Vaati in his demonic form, having finally escaped from being sealed away in the goddess blessed sword. Again our hero Link is about to face off against him with the help of the four sword, granting him the ability to split into four copies of himself. Thus, my friend, does our story _really_ begin.

* * *

**So that's the first chapter! I hope you enjoyed it, I'm planning it to be about 25 chapters when it's done. Leave a review if you want, and let me know what you think of it so far! **


	2. Battle Prep

**Hello again! Wow, this second chapter was sure up quick! I will probably update just once a week or so, and I would love to hear what readers think of this story, so please review! Thank you to Mage Vaati and Legendoffun for reviewing and supporting me on my first story, it is much appreciated.**

* * *

Floating in the sky, high above Hyrule, a palace rested in the clouds. This wondrous palace was none other than the Palace of Winds, home and hideout to the infamous wind mage Vaati. At this time it was oddly empty, no monsters roaming about like usual, just two people talking by one of the long windows in the throne room that overlooked Hyrule's castle town. One of these people was the sorcerer himself, Vaati. Dressed in his typical purple tunic and cape, he was majestic and mysterious as always, his posture containing its usual arrogance and vanity. The other person was none other than Hyrule's very own Princess Zelda. Wearing her patented pink dress embroidered with the golden triforce, and a pink bow placed proudly on her highly held head, she was the picture of elegance and royalty. These two people were practically polar opposites, and at the moment they were having a rather tense conversation.

"Your highness, I have some information I would like to share with you involving recent events, information which I am sure you will find most interesting". Vaati spoke to Zelda with fake respect, a hint of mockery in his tone of voice that was hard for the princess to miss.

Zelda looked the wind mage straight in the eye as she replied, with all the courage she could muster when speaking to this most wretched man. "Why, might I ask, do you wish to share information with me only now? I've been your captive at this goddess forsaken palace for weeks! And only now do you see it fit to speak to me and inform me of what's been going on outside of the palace?"

At this Vaati smiled. "Why yes, princess. I haven't really found it necessary to speak to you before now. You, my dear, just haven't been that high on my list of priorities."

"And you never once had it cross your narrow mind to check on me even briefly to let me know what has gone on?" Zelda huffed, barely keeping the clear anger out of her voice and trying to stay calm and composed. Vaati's next comment was enough to make her loose her well-kept composure.

"Quite frankly, _Princess_, I don't care".

At this, the princess exploded completely. "How dare you!? Do you have any idea exactly how worried I've been? I kept thinking the worst scenarios in my head, believing that you weren't coming back and I'd be stuck here forever with no one but the monsters to keep my company! Worse yet, I don't know how Link is doing! He could be dead for all I know, and without him, I don't know what I'd do…" She trailed off into silence, looking worriedly off into the distance. "I hope he's okay, more than I've ever hoped for anything else before in my life."

Vaati yawned with obvious boredom. "Princess, I've already told you that I really don't care, and if you're just going to go on a pointless rant about how heartless I am then I think I'll leave. I've already realized that I'm an evil demon; every person in Hyrule has already made that pretty clear to me, thanks. Now, will you listen to what I have to say or would you prefer it if I leave?" He ended with a glare, impatient in waiting for the princess's answer.

Offended that she was being treated so offhandedly, Zelda glared back with as much venom as she dared and grudgingly replied. "Yes, I would like to hear what you have to say." At her response, Vaati resumed his arrogant smile. "I thought you'd say that. So please, let me speak without any interruptions, though I can tell it will be rather difficult for you to keep your mouth shut."

At this Zelda didn't say a word, and only gave him a look as though to say "get on with it already". So Vaati obliged. "Well my dear, I'm sure you've noticed the length of your time here has been more than a few weeks, and sadly none of my stronger monsters have managed to end your pesky hero yet, which means he is nearing my palace with the hopes to save you."

Upon hearing this Zelda gasped and began to grin happily, though keeping her vow of silence, she kept quiet. Vaati gave her a look, and continued. "Having Link arrive here will be nothing short of annoying, but he will be destroyed, and then all of my troubles will be gone! When he arrives in a short while, as I have been notified by my sentries that he will, he shall be disposed of once and for all."

Vaati looked over at Zelda, expecting a horrified reaction from her, but it never came. Instead she looked at him with sorrow in her eyes almost as though pleading him to just listen to her, even if only for a moment. After a few seconds of silence, she spoke a single word.

"Why?"

At this response Vaati didn't know what to say. "What do you mean why?" he asked her, confused. "We both knew that if he survived the journey here, the two of us would go into battle. It's just the inescapable fact, the thing we both knew would eventually have to occur. That's what the hero and villain do at the end of the adventure, everyone knows that."

Princess Zelda turned away from his gaze, looking out the window to the land below. "I know that the hero and villain always fight at the end, but why? Vaati, you don't have to fight Link. It's not necessary, the two of you could call a truce or something and-"

"That's where you're wrong." Vaati said abruptly, cutting Zelda off mid sentence. "There is no truce and no happy ending for the both of us, just a fight to the death where one of us will meet our end. One hero and one villain, with only a single survivor, and that's all there will ever be."

Zelda turned to face him again as she spoke. "That's the thing, it doesn't have to end like that! You don't have to be the villain, you can just release me and leave us be, and that would be the end of everything! Not your versionof an end with death and blood spilled, but an end where both sides coexist in harmony. You can change the path you've set yourself, it doesn't have to be this way." As the princess finished speaking, she looked back at Vaati in surprise at what he said next.

"No, you've got it all wrong! There is no happy ending, no harmony, and definatly no peace! Even if I let you go, I could never live a normal life! Sure, you and Link would be happy, the picturesque fairytale ending for the princess and her hero, but what about me? I will never lead a normal life, no matter what you say, because I'm the villain and will always be thought of as the villain. No one and nothing can change that, not even you. Even if I did let you go, I still have the death sentence hanging over my head and I probably will as long as I live! All of Hyrule hates me, and no matter what sort of spin you put on it I assure you that they always will! There is no happy ending for me, so why not just finish what I've already started and try to come out on top? Even if I lose and die, which I won't, at least I will have died as the evil monster I am."

Vaati looked away as he finished his rant, not wanting to meet her eyes. He was afraid that he would find them with a pitying look. He didn't want anyone's pity, and especially not hers. Zelda sighed to herself, and whispered a single sentence. "But this truly isn't necessary, it doesn't have to be."

The wind mage heard her quiet comment and replied in a tired tone, forgetting his usual arrogance. "Don't you see? It is necessary. I am already condemned by not only all of Hyrule but by the goddesses themselves. This is the only path I have left, because of a choice I made long ago. Even if I wanted to change that, its just not a possibility."

The princess thought for a moment about what the wind mage said, and then made up her mind to ask him a simple question. "Do you have any regret?"

After a barely noticeable second of hesitation, he replied. "None."

"But-" Zelda began to speak and again Vaati cut her off. "My dear, we are done having this pointless conversation." He said, returning to his usual arrogant tone of voice. "Return to your chambers, and I will have one of my sentries inform you of the results of the battle as soon as it is complete. Until then, don't cause any trouble, and don't get any stupid ideas of escaping."

He swiftly turned on his heel and walked out of the throne room without a second glance, leaving the princess standing alone in stunned silence.

As he walked aimlessly through the empty halls of his palace, Vaati mused aloud to himself. "Surely it is necessary, the battle with Link. One of us will die, and the other will live. That's all there is to it, right? I mean, I have to fight him…" He trailed off into silent thought. _It's not as though Link would call a truce, and even if he did call it even and all of Hyrule forgave me for my crimes, the goddesses would never grant me their forgiveness. It's pointless to try to take a better path, and it is just too late to choose a different one. In fact, it's eight thousand years too late._

At this thought Vaati laughed bitterly to himself. He could never be a hero even if he wanted to, the mere word burned in his mind. Why was he thinking these thoughts anyways? Just because a silly princess wanted her fairytale ending to come true? Someone had to teach her about reality, and how things didn't always go as you wanted them to. He would show her, when her poor hero was on the ground at his feet begging for mercy from him, the greatest demon sorcerer in the world. Surely that would teach a lesson to that brat of a princess.

"Master!"

Vaati snapped out of his daydreaming when he heard a small voice. He turned his head towards where the voice came from to see one of his flying bat-like sentries, hovering in the air just a few feet away.

"What is it? The wind mage questioned his servant. "I hope it's important, as I specifically ordered all monsters away from the palace today for the battle with Link. I don't particularly want a crowd watching the fight when he comes to do battle with me." Vaati finished, looking at the sentry expectantly.

"I do apologize, my Lord" the sentry replied in its small voice. "But I do have something to say that is of importance."

"Well, what is it?" Vaati snapped impatiently.

The sentry gulped nervously, and hurried to continue. "My Lord, Link is nearing the palace. Actually he is almost here, just a few minutes away. We believe he will make a direct route to the roof of the palace, as it is the fastest place for him to go to get a good view of everything."

Vaati frowned upon hearing the news. "He's here so fast?" Vaati questioned to no one specifically. "I expected him to arrive in another hour at least, but no worry. He's making his way to the roof you say? I shall meet him there; it's a nice area for a battle." At this the sentry bobbed up and down in its form of a bow and turned to fly away. "You aren't dismissed" Vaati said. Hearing this, the sentry turned back to face Vaati, awaiting orders.

"I want you to do something for me, and do it quickly. Fly around the Palace of Winds and make sure not a single monster is present. After you have finished, go to where the monsters are currently residing and tell them not to come anywhere near my palace unless they want to answer to me. Believe me when I say that the consequence for intruding is death. This is a fight between Link and myself, and it is not for anyone else to barge in on. You are dismissed."

The sentry flew away, out of sight. Vaati watched him go, and then transformed into his demonic eye form. He took to the sky himself, and made his way to the roof to wait for Links arrival. As he flew, he spoke a single sentence to the open air, more to himself than anyone in particular.

"By the end of this fight, I can only hope I know what the right path is for me. If it is still unclear, then all of this trouble will have been for nothing."

* * *

**Thank you all for your support so far, and I hope you enjoyed this chapter!**


	3. The End of Four Swords

**Hello everyone! I hope all the readers are enjoying my story so far, and again I would like to give a big thank you to Mage Vaati and Legendoffun for their amazing support and wonderful reviews! Also, thanks to Cheesecake Superstar for the follow and fave! If you do read this story I would love it if you would post a review, as I really like to hear your feedback! **

* * *

In high anticipation of the upcoming battle, Vaati flew to the roof of his palace to await Links arrival. Along the way he thought to himself about what Princess Zelda had said to him earlier. He just couldn't come to terms with the fact that she thought he would be able to live a normal life if he stopped the fight with Link and set her free. Of course, she had most likely only said that in a final attempt to escape to safety without her precious Link being harmed, but there was a small part of Vaati that wished what she said was really true. Did he really have the possibility of normality after all?

Shaking his head, Vaati cleared his mind of these impossible dreams. Like that would ever happen, and on top of all that the princess had the audacity to ask him if he had any regret. Of course he didn't, everything he did was exactly what he wanted, wasn't it? He was a great sorcerer, the most powerful in the land! He didn't regret anything…

But was that really true? Hadn't there been times when he wished he wasn't a monster, and that people wouldn't scream and run away upon seeing his face? That he could just be normal and not all powerful, if only for a day? Trying to clear his head of these thoughts, Vaati argued to himself. _No, this is exactly what I wanted to happen with my life. I refuse to let that princess change my views on past decisions. What has been done is done, and that's all there is to it. Nothing I do now can change anything, for the future is practically set in stone already._

Vaati reached the roof of the palace and hovered in midair into the shadows of one of the many tall pillars sticking up into the sky, waiting for Link to arrive. Within minutes he heard a disturbance coming from the staircase which led from the bottom level of the palace to the roof.

"Hurry up, Red!"

"I really am trying, but Blue keeps getting in my way!"

"No I don't!"

"Yes you do!"

"Would you guys just shut up please? You're getting on my nerves."

"How about you shut up, hmm Vio?"

"Both of you, stop fighting!"

"Green, just stay out of it!"

Sighing, Vaati realized that there were not one but four Links whom he would have to fight. Using the power of the legendary four sword, the original Link had split himself into four copies and was therefore four times as powerful as he was prior. Even though the odds were not on his side, Vaati was still overly confident that he would be able to beat the four Links with ease. With a laugh he realized that the Links were fighting amongst themselves, arguing over who went first up the stairs! If this kept up, Vaati was completely assured that he would win the battle.

By now the Links were almost at the top of the stairs, and their heated arguing continued. When they were about to enter onto roof however, they almost completely quieted down so that only the sound of their whispering voices could be heard. If they were trying to be sneaky, they were doing a terrible job of it. Smiling, Vaati reassured himself again that defeating these pesky brats would be simple.

Oh, how wrong he was.

Tentatively, the Links arrived at the top of the staircase and walked onto the roof. Now that they were in view, Vaati could see that the four Links looked exactly the same, except for the fact that they each wore a different coloured tunic. The one in green seemed to be the leader of all the Links, as he stood at the front of the group and was giving them instructions on what to do next. The Link dressed in blue was acting a bit hot headed, as he stood proudly with a tough attitude and kept looking around as though ready to strike at the first sign of danger. The one dressed in red was not as strong at first glance, for he stood timidly behind the one in blue with a look of pure and utmost innocence. Lastly, the one wearing purple had a look of intelligence about him, like he was already planning the best move to make and was trying to figure out possible dangers of their surroundings.

Not wanting to waste any more time, Vaati flew out of the shadows into full view for the Links to see. As soon as they saw him, they immediately got into a battle stance with their swords at the ready. Green took a brave step forward and spoke to Vaati. "Where is Princess Zelda, and what have you done with her? If you give her to us, we will not harm you."

At this statement, Vaati felt exceedingly curious about why Link was giving him the opportunity to just hand over Zelda in exchange for no battle. Why was everyone giving him a chance to be good? Didn't they understand that he couldn't change? With a vain attempt at concealing his curiosity, Vaati let out a laugh. "Hahaha, you truly believe I would just hand her over to you after I've gone through all the trouble of capturing her? I think not. Your princess is deep inside my Palace of Winds, and only over my dead body will you reach her."

Green turned his head away, looking down at the ground. "Then so be it," he said softly. Was that regret in his voice? Vaati didn't have time to contemplate this odd behaviour, for no sooner then Green had said these words did all four of the Links spread out to prepare an attack. Vaati wasn't going to let them have the first strike.

Aiming at the Link closest to him, who so happened to be Blue, Vaati shot a well-aimed tornado. Not expecting an attack so soon, Blue was caught off guard and painfully thrust backwards into one of the stone pillar. Triumphantly Vaati turned to face the other Links, as though urging them to try to attack him.

Red quickly ran over to his fallen companion. Worriedly he asked him, "Blue! Are you okay?"

Groaning, Blue clutched his sore head in his hands and got up slowly with the help of Red. "Yeah" he grufflly replied. Glaring at Vaati he added, "And now it's time to show that vile monster what we are really made of."

"What, weaklings like you?" Vaati mocked. "If you sad excuses for heroes are the best thing the goddesses have to stop me, then-"

He was cut off by Vio lunging at him with his sword, noticing that while Vaati was distracted talking to Blue was the perfect time to strike. As Vio had planned, his sword had perfectly cut through the center of one of Vaati's wings, greatly imparing his ability to fly.

"Gah!" Vaati yelled, caught off guard himself by the sudden attack. "Brats!" He spat the word venomously, hating how he so incorrectly overestimated himself. Actually, now that he looked back on past events, overestimation had always been his downfall… But there was no time to dwell on that now when there was a battle to fight!

Quick as a flash, Vaati summoned several mini hurricanes to knock the four Links off their feet, but Green was too fast for him. Taking his opportunity he lunged at Vaati with his sword, just narrowly missing his target.

From there on the fight commenced. Though Vaati no longer had the advantage of flight thanks to Vio having sliced through his wing, he put up quite the fight against the heroes. Shooting lasers from his huge red eye and summoning hurricanes and tornadoes to weaken his opponents, there had never before been a tougher battle.

The Links kept up well, and with the power of the goddesses on their side they were stronger than ever before. Working together for once, their precisely aimed swords and complex moves were enough to astound even the powerful wind mage himself. It was hard to say who would win the battle.

In the end, endurance was the most important thing. The four Links had tireless energy, and helping each other sometimes allowed them a brief rest in between Vaati's attacks. Vaati on the other hand wasn't doing the best at the moment. Growing more and more tired by the Links relentless attacks, with each passing minute his moves became more sloppily thrown and not as well aimed, as his main goal became to just throw whatever attacks he could at his enemies. Where they sometimes got a quick break and the time to rest and recover, Vaati had no breaks whatsoever, having to continuously be on the defensive and always needing to keep watch on all four Links at the same time.

Slowly, Vaati became worn out and was unable to keep up with the fast paced battle anymore. It didn't matter that he was the greatest sorcerer in the world because the four Links just kept coming at him, not leaving him with anytime to recover and use one of his more powerful spells in the first place.

Battered and bloodied from the battle, the Links tirelessly fought on. They were determined to stop Vaati, and they could tell that he was nearing the end of his life. The only thing fuelling them forwards was that at the end of the battle they would be able to see Princess Zelda at last. They could just imagine how happy she would be when they came to rescue her and take her home.

Back and forth, Vaati and the four Links exchanged attacks in a single, never ending pattern. On it went, until suddenly Vaati stumbled in preparing a defensive shield to protect himself from an attack sent by Green, and got hit hard by the blade of his sword. "Now, we have to finish this!" Green shouted to the rest of the Links. "It may be our only opportunity; we must all strike the final blow together to seal Vaati away once more!"

Shouting in agreement, the Links readied themselves to deal the final blow to Vaati. Dazed, in the most pain imaginable and unable to fly at all now because of so many gashes dealt to his once perfect wings, Vaati tried to set up a new shield in the hopes of weakening the last attack. Finding that the shield was of no use as he was too weak to use it, Vaati transformed back into his Hylian form to rid himself of the pain coming from his wings. Even in his Hylian form, the pain from his wounds was still excruciatingly unbearable. Fire seemed to burn every part of his body that the Links swords had cut, his stomach had a deep gash across it that was losing blood fast and his head was throbbing so hard that he felt as though he would pass out at any second. Sadly he realized that there was nothing left to do but wait for the death blow to seal his fate.

Red stopped in shock when he saw that Vaati had transform into a Hylian. "Um, Green? How...? Is that really Vaati?" As Red looked around he noticed that none of the other Links were expecting the sorcerer to transform into something so vulnerable, for they had only ever seen him in his most powerful demon eye form.

Stunned, Green didn't know what to say. "I'm not sure, Red. I mean, that's Vaati alright, but I don't understand why he has decided to transform into a Hylian..."

"It's probably because he wants to trick us into thinking he's weak, so while we are stupidly discussing it he can come and kill us all!" Blue huffed, feeling annoyed. "Really guys, let's just cut to the chase and deal the last blow to him already."

"But," Vio began quietly. "Is it really the same as defeating a monster? He looks human now, so isn't it sort of like killing one of us?"

Surprised at the comment, Blue replied. "That's true I guess, but he's not really one of us. He kidnapped the princess, released monsters all over Hyrule, and tried to harm us! Vio, don't forget that we aren't actually killing him, we're just sealing him away. It's not like we will be the cause of his death."

"Guys, my conscience can't take this anymore. Can we please just hurry up and seal him away? Look, he's practically dead anyways. Come on, let's do it now okay?" Green looked at each of the Links in turn, and they each gave back a solemn nod of agreement. "Alright, on the count of three."

On the floor Vaati could barely make out what the Links were saying, but he no longer cared. What did it matter anyways? He was as good as dead, and now there was nothing left for him at all. Hopefully they wouldn't seal him away again, he would rather die than face another few thousand years in that goddess cursed sword. Death would be faster and much more bearable.

Green began the countdown. "One."

Now Vaati truly had no idea what was taking them so long. Surely they should have finished him off by now? What were they waiting for? Oh well, maybe they were enjoying seeing him spread out helplessly on the floor, dying in horrible agony and writhing in pain. With his quickly dimming ruby red eyes staring up into the clouds above his beautiful palace, there was nothing left for him to do but wait for death to come.

"Two."

Vaati closed his eyes, trying to block out the thoughts that came rushing to his mind. What if he had agreed to just simply give the Links back Princess Zelda? Somehow he thought that things would be different if he had. If only he had listened to them when he had the chance... There was no time for doubt now, but it was still a nice final dream, and a last ending wish for peace of mind.

"Three."

Together the Links jumped up with their swords held high in the air above their heads. In perfect unison they brought their swords down in midair aimed directly at Vaati's chest, and more specifically, at his heart. Time seemed to stop as they brought their swords down upon the wind mage, as the sharp blades of their swords cut deep into his chest already crimson with blood.

Upon the swords impact, Vaati opened his eyes in shock. No longer the sharp, taunting red eyes that they once were, but now a dim and lifeless hue. A gasp escaped his lips as the swords dug deeper into his chest in the most unbearable pain imaginable, and a single glistening tear ran down his cheek.

Vaati could no longer think straight, and as the pain wracked throughout his body in convulsive spasms he wished for death to end him more then he ever had in his entire life. Then, just as he thought the pain couldn't get any worse, it did. For a split second, Vaati felt as though he was completley on fire. Not a sound escaped him as he writhed on the ground in silent agony, refusing to give in to the pain and not letting a scream escape his lips.

Then the pain was gone as quickly as it had come, replaced by a feeling of haziness and sleep. Vaati closed his eyes for the final time as his world faded to black, leaving the land of the living and entering the sacred seal inside of the four sword at long last.

* * *

**Aww, it seems like the end for Vaati doesn't it? Not to worry, though he is injured he is not gone for good! He's only sealed away again... This is a Vaati central fic, so of course I wouldn't have him die this early into the story! Please review, and feedback is welcome! :)**


	4. Emptiness

**Hello again! Wow, thank you for all the support I've received so far. I can't believe I have 5 follows and faves already, and we're only on chapter 4! Thanks to Mage Vaati, Legendoffun, YoungAndOutstandingIndividual, Cheesecake Superstar, Abagail Grace Mandogirl, and isagonj! Please feel free to leave a review, as I really do like to hear your feedback.**

* * *

"Go off and read the next volume of beginners elemental spells, I need a rest."

"But Master Ezlo, I want to actually learn magic!"

"Not now, my boy. It's much too dangerous."

"Then when can I learn?"

"You can learn once you're older."

"But why? All the kids at school tease me cause I'm an orphan and they think I look weird, but if I learn magic then they may not tease me anymore! They might even be my friends! Could you just teach me one spell? I'll be extra careful, I promise!"

"No, no... I'm sorry Vaati, but you're still too young. Maybe another time."

"Oh... Alright then, I'll just go read some more..."

...

Silence. Nothing but pure, empty silence. There was no rustling of leaves or the blowing of wind through the trees, not a creature made a sound nor did ocean waves crash upon a shoreline.

That was because none of these things were anywhere in sight. No, there was nothing at all but a plain white void that seemed to stretch on forever without an end. In the middle of the void of white was a single, lone figure laying curled up on the ground.

Battered and gravely injured was none other than the sorcerer Vaati. Blood was drying from his many wounds, and his cape and tunic were in tatters. Once perfect lavender hair now fell in matted clumps over his eye, hair that was stained with the red color of his own blood. Across his cheek was a long cut that ran from his temple to his chin, and there was another huge gash deep across his stomach. He had bruised arms and legs that hurt to move an inch, and his cap had gone crooked atop his head.

The only thing missing from the injuries he had attained during his battle with the Links were the four stab marks that should have cut deep into his chest and heart. So Vaati was alive, no longer having the mark of the final, fateful blow, but still retaining all of his other injuries. He was miraculously alive.

It is hard to say exactly how long he lay on the ground unconscious, but his wounds healed slowly, and when the pain had somewhat subsided he finally woke up. The feeling of hurt coming from his injuries was still there, but now it was slightly more bearable.

Vaati's eyes fluttered open in surprise and he looked around to try to figure out where he was, and more importantly, why he was still alive.

Wincing in pain he slowly pulled himself up into a sitting position, still not having the energy to stand. Taking in his blank surroundings, his mind went numb as he realized where he was.

_No, not again_ he thought to himself. _Please no, even death would have been better than this! Why here?_

By the love of Din, Nayru and Farore... He was stuck in the dreaded four sword yet again. It was just like he remembered it had been last time; blank, lifeless, and empty. Not to mention white, the goddesses favorite color that was used to represent purity. Oh, how they mocked him so, shoving in his face the fact that his own heart was tainted black with evil.

Vaati didn't know what to do, and after looking around himself in shock once more, he closed his eyes and began to cry. What did it matter anyways? No one would see him, as he was obviously alone. Sometimes even the strongest of all people break down once in a while.

Vaati's body shook with sobs and throbbed with pain from his wounds as he came upon the sad fact that there was no longer anything left for him. He had no way of escaping the seal of the four sword in his current state, and had nothing to do but wait around for at least a couple thousand years for someone to break the seal again. That, or he would just wait alone forever in the tormenting emptiness of the four sword.

Even though crying wasn't something he would ever resort to doing in the real world, he didn't care wether he broke down or not in the four sword. There was no one here to judge him except the goddesses, and he could care less about their opinion of him. Last time he was stuck in the sword, he had tried to keep his composure the whole time. This time was different, for he no longer cared what he did.

After the sobs had died away, Vaati decided to look around his confinement space to see if there was anything of interest or if it really was just an endless white void like it had been the last time he was trapped in here.

He got up slowly, trying his best to ignore the pains covering every inch of his body. Now that he had gotten all his sadness out earlier when he cried, he was now filling up with anger.

He felt anger at Link for confining him inside this stupid sword yet again, anger at Zelda for being such a numbskull when it came to serious matters, and anger at the goddesses themselves for being so damn good all the time! Couldn't they see that nobody was perfect, and that sometimes a second chance was nice? Of course, he was the last person they would be giving a second chance to.

Laughing, he realized that it would actually be a third chance. Vaati shook his head to clear out these wishful thoughts. Even though he had all the time in the world to daydream about escape and such, it wasn't exactly what he wanted to fill his mind with for the next couple thousand years.

Slowly and carefully, so as to not reopen any of his wounds, Vaati made his way around the blank space of the four sword. After a while he realized with a huff that it was exactly the same as it had been last time, blank and empty. There wasn't even a breeze to calm him as the lovely wind had always done back in the real world.

By now his anger had built up until he was practically ready to explode at the emptiness. That was when he decided to test his powers, hoping that the goddesses hadn't taken that away from him too. If his powers worked, he could vent his anger through summoning rough winds and such without losing his composure.

Raising his hands up, Vaati tried to summon a gust of wind to come and surround himself in the form of a tornado. To his annoyance, nothing happened. Again he tried a simpler elemental spell with the hopes of it working, but it didn't. He lowered his hands again with his hopes crushed, his pent up anger finally coming to the surface.

How dare the goddesses take away his magic, the only thing he had left? Were they afraid of him? Vaati laughed, thinking of the three goddesses cowering in a corner at the very thought of him, now wouldn't that be a fun sight to see...

That would never happen though, at least not anymore. He was no longer a powerful wind mage but a pitiful, powerless Hylian covered with wounds and looking worn beyond belief. Without his magical abilities he was nothing but a vainly arrogant guy, but why have arrogance when you were no longer better than everyone else? The thought that he was now lesser in status and importance compared to practically every common person in Hyrule was what made Vaati finally lose it.

"What is wrong with you!?" Vaati shouted in anger up at the goddesses. "I hope you can hear me, because I have some things I have to say to you three."

Taking a deep breath, he yelled. "You're all bloody cowards, you know that? Farore, when I hear that you are the sacred goddess of courage I have no other option but to laugh in your face. You are the exact opposite of courageous if you can't even face me!"

"Din, you call yourself powerful? I have high doubts of that, in my eyes you're no better then a common peasant who gets scared at the slightest disturbance in your pathetic little life."

"Nayru, there is no way in the world that you are the goddess of wisdom. If you are, then the people's definition of wise must come with really low standards because you're about as wise as the stupid Minish race!"

At this Vaati gasped, clutching the wound in his side that had reopened because of the sudden strain he had put on his body. Although he was even more worn out then he had been before, he smiled to himself. He hoped the goddesses had heard that!

Laughing maniacally, he faced upwards and yelled to the dense white realm again. "Hahaha, I know why you're keeping me sealed in here! It's because you're secretly weak and worthless, and I'm the only one who's seen past your silly brigade! You want to be known as the all powerful goddesses, but really you're nothing more than scared little fakes!"

Not really believing what he had just said was true, Vaati continued to laugh insanely. He had completely lost every ounce of self composure and worth that he once had, because he just didn't care anymore and had finally realized how hopeless his situation was. Let the goddesses keep him here forever! He didn't care, nothing mattered to him anymore.

If anyone else could see Vaati in his current state, they would say he had finally lost his mind. Yelling curses up at the goddesses and laughing, he kept this up for hours until his throat was sore and the cut in his side was bleeding hard and left him doubled over in pain. When he was done with his pointless taunting he sat down on the ground once again, no longer able to stand.

Now that he got the anger out of his system, Vaati was feeling absolutely miserable. Head in his hands, he tried to forget how moments ago he crossed the border into insanity. He couldn't let that happen again, it left him disappointed in himself for resorting to such humiliation.

Was that what he had come to? A mentally unstable person, almost losing any ounce of sanity he had left? He tried to collect himself, taking a deep breath in and out. He didn't want to have another breakdown, and hoped that he never would again.

Laying down, Vaati closed his eyes and drifted off to sleep. He was tired from the strain he had put on himself, and almost all of his wounds had reopened. Yes, the best thing he could do right now was to rest and try to heal.

For the next few days, Vaati kept up the same routine. He would wake up and wander around aimlessly, hanging onto a false hope of possibly finding an escape. It was pointless, as everywhere looked the same. He couldn't tell if he was walking in circles or if he was actually accomplishing something. Not that it really mattered, but it was better then sitting around and doing nothing.

As he walked around he mulled over everything he had done, going over life events and making up different scenarios in which the end result of his life would have been different. What if he had never taken Master Ezlo's wishing cap, would he still be a Minish or would he have come to gain power in a different way? Or what if he hadn't battled Link and took up the princesses offer of no fight in exchange for forgiveness?

That was probably what what bothered him the most, wondering if the princess would have kept her word and left him alone, removing the death sentence and letting him become a regular citizen. Would it have worked? Well, now he would never know. He would have the next thousand years to think that one over.

Suddenly, Vaati caught a glimpse of something glowing in the distance. Forgetting his thoughts on the past he ran towards this new object, wishing with all his heart that it wasn't a mirage or a trick of his mind. As he got closer to the mysterious object he could see that it was glowing red, blue and green. Now he was suspicious, as those were the patented colours of goddesses themselves. Red for Din, blue for Nayru, and green for Farore. Could it be...?

When he was but a few feet away from the glowing object, he saw that it was not one but three glowing orbs, each a different color. He stopped running towards them and stood to watch in amazement as he saw the orbs begin to float gracefully towards him. His eyes widened in stunned surprise as the orbs began to transform right in front of him. Slowly they morphed into three beautiful young women.

Dressed majestically in satin robes that glowed with sparkling colours, the three lovely ladies gracefully walked closer towards Vaati until they were face to face with the sorcerer. Smiling, the one wearing red spoke. "Hello young mage, I am the Goddess of Power, Din." Gesturing at the woman in blue beside her, she said "this is the Goddess of Wisdom, Nayru. And this," she said, looking at the woman wearing green on her other side, "is the Goddess of Courage, Farore."

At this Vaati was left completely dumbstruck, and he only managed to say a few words.

"What do you want from me?"

* * *

**Okay, now onto chapter 5! This was a sort of filler chapter, but I really wanted to show how difficult it was for Vaati the last time he was in the four sword and why he dreaded coming back there so much. Now he has to answer to the goddesses! Hmm, I wonder how that will turn out... By the way, next chapter I will answer to reviews! **


	5. Goddesses Visit

**Wow, I've now got seven follows/faves and sixteen reviews! Thank you all so much for your wonderful support! I hope you enjoy this next chapter, even though its more on the shorter side. I mean, you can only write an angsty dialogue for so long... But it was rather difficult to write so I hope you like how it turned out!**

* * *

Dumbstruck and at a complete loss for words, Vaati could do nothing but stare with awe at the three amazing figures before him. Why would they come to speak directly to him? There wouldn't be a need for that unless they were really mad at him about something...

Oh no.

Vaati recalled how he had cursed at the goddesses, calling them fake and stupid beings and shouting every bad thing at them he could think of. That was probably why they had come to speak with him, to punish him for his disrespect. Nervously, Vaati quietly asked them a single question. "What do you want from me?"

"Well," Din began with an air of annoyance. "Firstly, we were very curious as to what brought you to say those disgraceful things about us. You see, we found those to be quite offensive."

"Yes, it was rather rude of you," Farore added. "Not to mention that it was completely unnecessary. Please do explain yourself."

Trying to sound more confident then he actually was, Vaati replied carefully. "I didn't mean all those things, but really, how would you feel if you found out you'd been confined to an empty prison for the next few thousand years? Excuse me for _offending_ you three, but I just couldn't take it anymore. I'm sure that anyone else would have done the same."

"That still gives you no right to speak to us in that way!" Nayru said sternly. "As the sacred goddesses we deserve respect and we obviously have our reasons for sealing you here instead of letting you die, even though we can tell that you would have preferred death over confinement."

"Care to enlighten me on those reasons for my confinement?" Vaati asked, regaining his arrogant manner.

"It's definitely not because we were scared of you, that isn't the case at all," stated Farore. "In fact, it was because we sensed something in you, something different that we can't usually sense in a villain. A sliver of hope."

"Vaati, we know absolutely everything about everyone. All the doubts you've ever had about your decisions and all those times where you wished for another way out of things... Well, we can tell that you aren't all bad. Those doubts you have about yourself are what have led us to believe that you really do want to change, even though you don't usually show it. That's really why we came to speak with you, not to punish you for your mistakes but to see if the light we saw inside of you is truly there, just waiting to come out."

Vaati took a step backwards, unable to listen to what the goddesses were implying. "Are you trying to say that you think I might be good!? Well let me tell you right now that I'm not! If that's really what you believe then you're just kidding yourself. I am the most evil, manipulative and powerful villain in the entire history of Hyrule! You have got it all wrong, and you're holding on to the false belief that I have some good inside of me. I hate to break it to you, but I'm completely bad and nothing's going to change that. Why does everyone seem to think I can change?"

"You have to stop denying it," Nayru said. "We know that there has always been a sweet, secretly kind part of you. Maybe it's part of your natural instinct with your Minish background and all-"

"Don't even go there," Vaati cut in angrily. "Don't you ever mention my Minish background again. I refuse to associate myself with them, let alone admit to ever having been one! That's one part of my past that I'm glad to have left behind."

Nayru sighed. "I was just referring to how it's naturally part of the Minish instinct to be helpful and kind to others, that's all. As I was saying, we can tell that you aren't fully bad. You can still change your ways."

"How would I even do that?" Vaati snapped, annoyed. "You don't understand what it's like to always give people the first impression that you want to kill them by just looking at them! People don't run away when they see you, why, they practically worship you! Nobody understands how difficult everything is, especially you three, and you just expect me to be able to change?"

Din was getting tired of Vaati's 'better then thou' behavior, and replied back irritably. "We have our own troubles, thank you very much. When something goes wrong in Hyrule all of the blame comes up to us! There are some things that we just can't control, and nobody seems to get that. We don't live the easy life either you know."

"Why not complain about your practically perfect life some more, hmm?" Vaati muttered. "Everyone respects you, so at least you're known for good reasons..."

"Would you shut up!? At least you havee got a chance! We on the other hand are stuck here forever helping the Hylians with no chance of fixing our problems. Stop whining and accept the fact that you, the _all powerful demon lord Vaati, _actually needs help for once! Admit it, if we don't release you then you'll never be able to get out of this sword by yourself, and I don't think you're going to want to wait another couple thousand years for someone else to break the seal again."

At this, Vaati didn't respond. What Din said was true, but he would never admit it. Was it so wrong that he was a little bit envious of the goddesses good reputation? He found it difficult not to send a stinging remark back at Din and refrained from doing so merely because he knew what she was capable of doing of she got angry.

"Vaati."

Breaking away from his thoughts, Vaati turned to face Nayru. "Yes?"

Looking back at him with sadness in her eyes, she spoke with solemnity. "We can help you. You have got a real chance at redemption, and all you have to do is take it."

"But what I don't understand is why you're all so keen on helping me!" Vaati exclaimed. "You've never cared before, so why are you offering me this chance so suddenly?"

Now Farore stepped forward to speak. "We have always cared, even if we haven't shown it before. You see, we have noticed you having inward conflicting dilemmas with yourself and we thought that if we left you be you would sort it out for yourself! We have been keeping an eye on you ever since you took that wishing cap, hoping that you would change your path by yourself. Now we've finally realized that you will not be taking the correct path without a good push in the right direction, so now we're here to provide that much needed push."

There was still one thing that Vaati couldn't quite grasp. He didn't get why they ever cared about him in the first place, as the feeling of being cared for was new to him. Master Ezlo had been nothing more then a teacher, and no one else in Vaati's life had even come close to caring for him. Having been an orphan abandoned at birth, the prospect of someone actually caring for him was completely new.

"So," Farore continued to speak. "We have an offer for you."

At this, Vaati's ears perked up. "Oh? What sort or offer might that be?" He asked, trying to hide his curiosity.

"We would like to offer you a chance to change your path once and for all, to become something more then just another villain." Din had begun to speak again, wishing to explain the details of the offer herself.

"You want to become a better person, but we know that you render that idea pointless because you do not believe you would have our full forgiveness for your past actions of evil deeds. With this offer we would not only completely forgive you for your past mistakes, but we would also guarantee that all of Hyrule would forgive you as well. We do care for you, as we care for every person, but you have to first prove to us that you wish to change your ways and become a better person."

Vaati was shocked that the goddesses were offering him this once in a lifetime chance. Curious, he asked a question. "What would I have to do to gain your forgiveness?"

"Well," started Din. "To gain our forgiveness you would have to overcome three challenging tasks to prove that you are actually a good person. One task would be based on your power, one based on your wisdom, and one based on your courage. If you overcome these daunting tasks, we will grant you our full forgiveness as well as all of Hyrule's."

"Now, if you do decide to take this journey to overcome the tasks, you will be allowed to leave the four sword and re-enter the real world. If you fail any of the tasks at hand then you will be immediately bought back into the four sword to be kept here for eternity, for failing would be all the proof we need that you are and always will be a villain with no chance of change."

With her magical abilities, Farore created a glowing golden portal in the ground a few feet away. Urging Vaati to step forward again, she spoke a final few words. "If you decide to take on the quest for your redemption, step into the portal of light. It will take you to the real world, where we will speak to you to give you your first task. You have a day to decide wether or not to enter the portal."

"With that we bid you a final farewell. Choose wisely, and may the path of goodness and light find you at last."

After these last words were said, the goddesses transformed back into the glowing, colored orbs and floated up into the blank white void until they were no longer in sight. Sighing, Vaati turned towards the golden portal that was a few feet away from him. He now had a huge decision to make.

* * *

**So there it is! I hope you enjoyed it, but will Vaati choose to remain in the four sword or take a chance at redemption...? I guess you'll just have to wait and find out! Now, time to answer my reviews. **

**Mage Vaati ~ **Haha it's nice to know I made you laugh XP Yes, mentally unstable Vaati was so much fun to write! (I probably had more fun writing him like that then I should have lol) Well now you know what the goddesses had to say! It probably wasn't what you expected, huh? But now the real question remains, will Vaati make the right choice? *cue dramatic music*

**Legendoffun ~ **Thank you! I'm glad you liked my explanation of the four sword, my aim was to make it seem completely lifeless and endless, and I'm glad it was portrayed as such! Haha you have no idea how glad I am that you like the plot. Phew, what a relief to know that my grammar and spelling was good. I was very unsure about the grammatical correctness and such, and it's good to know that if there were any errors it hasn't affected the story at all! Again, thank you for all your amazing support!

**Abagail Grace Mandogirl ~ **Thanks so much ^.^ Well, the goddesses weren't exactly goaded into answering him, it was more like they were going to speak with him anyways and by him shouting obscenities up at them gave them the perfect opportunity to come down to speak with him. Yay you found it funny! I hope you enjoyed this chapter as well.

**YoungAndOutstandingIndividual ~ **Thank you for your exceedingly long reviews and your continuous support. Although they aren't exactly helpful, they were very funny :P Um, where to start? Okay, so Zelda is the _female_ princess and Link is the _male_ hero. What twist are you talking about exactly? I don't remember writing that lol. He wasn't allowed to use magic because he was young and the elemental spells he wanted to learn were deathly dangerous if preformed incorrectly, he wouldn't have just been pulling a rabbit out of a hat -.- Btw, Link isn't his friend, he's actually the exact opposite of a friend. He was trying to kill him and all! Um man purse... No, just no. He was crying because he was hurt and depressed stuff. No it wasn't a typo, I really meant Minish not Minion lol XP


	6. Choice

**Hello my amazing supporters and fans! Thank you for the wonderful reviews and the support, you have no idea how great it is to be pushed forward by each and every reader! So far my story has recieved over five hundred views, so please feel free to review. I love to be given ways to improve my writing and feedback on how I'm doing, so please pm me or leave a review :)**

* * *

Keeping his eyes fixed on the golden portal of light glowing on the ground right in front of him, Vaati tried to make sense of what exactly had just happened to him. The goddesses had actually come to speak to him, not to punish him but to offer a new possibility of a second chance? That had definitely been an unexpected and completely unplanned turn of events in his life.

Since when did the sacred goddesses come down to talk to their prisoners to offer them an escape? Not ever, at least not to him. It was unheard of for sacred beings such as the goddesses to even associate themselves with any mortals besides the hero and the princess.

So why did they care so much for him? Nobody in his entire life had ever shown so much as an ounce of care towards him, it was always pity, disappointment, hatred and sorrow. This feeling of being cared for was completely new to him, and he still wasn't used to it. All his life he had never been loved or accepted by anyone, and he really did want to experience that feeling.

If what they had said was true, they had always cared for him but wanted him to find the right path on his own terms, but since he still hadn't reached it after eight thousand years the three had decided to interfere and take matters into their own hands. Though it hurt his pride that they had to help him see the right way, he was secretly glad they'd interfered when they did. Without their guidance, he didn't think he ever would have come to terms with the possibility of even trying to be nice.

Now the one thing that Vaati had daydreamed about over and over again with the belief that it was just an impossibility was finally a real opportunity. He could be good, loved, free and forgiven by all who had been hurt by his wrongdoings. He could be known for something truly worthwhile.

But should he take the chance? Now the daunting question faced him, wether or not to risk it all. It was a hard decision to make, and he wasn't sure if he was up to it or not. If he chose to step into the portal, he would always remember his evil past and wish for it again, but if he didn't take the chance then he would live with the horrible, wishful regret for as long as he lived.

On one hand, if he stayed in the four sword for eternity he would keep his infamous reputation as the evil sorcerer of winds forever. Feared by all, he would be forever known in history for only his bad and selfish acts and never for anything good and kind. That is, if he even escaped the four sword on his own. Escaping on his own would be futile. The goddesses had made it very clear to him that if he wished to remain evil they would do all in their power to keep him contained in the dreadful sword for eternity, trying to make sure he wouldn't be able to harm Hyrule again. Shuddering, he tried not to think of spending another couple lifetimes inside of the empty sword.

On the other hand, Vaati could finally live his well kept secret dream of being known for something good. He would no longer be feared, but actually had a chance of being revered if he took up the goddesses on their offer of taking on the three tasks and becoming a better person. He would be able to live life with normality, never to be sealed in the four sword again.

"Why is this so difficult?" Vaati muttered frustratedly. He was struggling with his inward debate over what choice to make, and it hurt his ego to even consider becoming good. "I couldn't possibly choose the goddesses pure path of light, could I...?"

Inside, Vaati wanted to step into that magical golden portal and take his chance at forgiveness. The only big thing holding him back was his huge amount of pride. Everything he had worked for since the day he first stole his masters wishing cap would have been all for naught. The bad deeds he had done and the crimes he had committed would have been pointless, and he didn't want to think that he'd wasted his life trying to gain ultimate power for absolutely nothing.

All the evil things he had done, well, what if they were just useless things done to try to gain power? That's pretty much all that they were. Sighing, Vaati realized that Zelda had been right in saying that he hadn't needed to fight Link in the ending battle. It wasn't because she was worried about her beloved Link, but it was because she knew that Vaati was entering a pointless battle in which Link would win and he would lose. She knew that Link would be safe, but she wanted Vaati to be safe too, no matter how cruelly he had treated her. She wasn't holder of the triforce of wisdom for nothing.

Zelda had been trying to stop a battle that needn't have occurred, because she knew her history lessons well enough to understand the crude truth. The hero always won, no matter what. Being the nice princess that she was, Zelda didn't want to see Vaati die and had tried her best to save him from an uncontrollable fate. Even as a captive the princess was thoughtful of her captor.

Why was the princess so damn nice all the bloody time? It made it all the harder to hate her, and one might just start having feelings for her naivety and stupidity in personal matters, not to mention the grace with which she carried herself, the belief that she was always correct in her views of things, and not to mention her astounding elegance and beauty...

Just then a new thought crossed Vaati's mind.

Even if he did take up the goddesses offer, they wouldn't have made sure all of Hyrule forgave him until the three tasks at hand were completed. When he re-entered Hyrule to complete the tasks, he would still be thought of as an evil villain. Therefore, all the townsfolk would obviously find out of his return and there would be a price over his head and search parties looking everywhere for him, that is, if they didn't capture and kill him at first sight.

So basically, going back into the real world again was like securing his death sentence. Yet if he didn't take the offer, he would be stuck in the four sword forever and condemned there for eternity! What type of a choice was that?

Grumbling to himself, Vaati reached the conclusion that the goddesses were playing dirty and unfairly. No person in their right mind would ever make a choice like that, where it was win and lose either way you looked at it. Why would anyone have to pick between a loss and an even bigger loss?

Annoyed with himself and with his inability to make a decision, Vaati sat down on the ground in deep thought. _Damn it Din, Nayru and Farore. I can't do it, and I'm not stupid enough to go die on some pointless task given to me by the goddesses! They probably just offered me those three tasks to try and have me killed without doing any of the dirty work themselves. Hmph, typical sacred beings._

Looking up at where the glowing colored orbs of the goddesses had disappeared into the empty void, Vaati sighed. "Why can't I just be happy with being evil? I never should have doubted myself, if I hadn't I probably wouldn't have cared what Zelda said to me and would have been focused of beating the Links! I would have won and gained ultimate power and complete and total domination of Hyrule by now. This doubt is just completely unnecessary and unhelpful."

Shaking his head, Vaati knew what he said wasn't true. History always seemed to repeat itself in the same pattern throughout time. There would be a hero and a villain, and the hero would always triumph over the villain in the end. Bad guys never won anything but infamy and hatred, and he then realized that being the bad guy was nothing more than a pointless escapade. Looking back on his own past experience, the hero takes it all, whereas the villain has to fall. That's how it always worked time and time again.

"I hate to say it, but... I've been wasting my time..." Vaati said softly, stunned in shock over his newfound realization. "My life so far has been for... Nothing."

He wished he had seen it sooner, and that he hadn't wasted his time on the pointless feat of destroying the hero. Why had he been so naive? Absolutely furious with himself, he stood up and shouted to the sky with pain in his voice. "Why had nobody told me sooner that all I've done was for absolutely nothing! Did nobody care enough to let me know? Why..."

Vaati trailed off, staring into blank oblivion. There was no point in living anymore, no point in even having existed in the first place. He would just end up being known as the villain who wasted his life, or the bad guy who took eight thousand years to notice that his plans weren't getting him anywhere. What a waste.

Whatever the case was, Vaati had almost completely given up hope and lost any sense of the accomplishment he once had. He wanted to be known far and wide throughout every region of Hyrule, but not for those sorrowful reasons.

Wait a second. He didn't have to be known just for that! The goddesses were giving him a second chance for a reason, and Vaati was now certain it was for him to redeem himself and be known for something truly noteworthy! He could do it, with all his arrogance and self centered pride, he was still hanging onto the belief that he was the greatest.

Head held high again, Vaati had set a new task for himself. He would complete the three tasks given to him by the goddesses, and rise to power in a completely different way. How he would do this he wasn't sure, but he had lots of time to figure it out, right? First things first, he had to complete the tasks.

Yet the seeping doubt crept into his mind yet again. How would he manage to gain ultimate power without being evil? Was there another way to do so without taking the place of the hero? If being a hero was the only way to be made known, he wasn't sure if he was up for it. Honestly, he was no hero and never would be.

Link was the hero and he was the villain. He wasn't saying he had never thought of what it might have been like to be the hero and walk in Link's shoes, but he was sure that it must've been fantasic. Always garunteed a win in any fight you faced, not to mention being loved by the princess and all of Hyrule, what more could you ask for? But a villain like him could never play the role of the hero.

So what to choose?

Looking over at the golden portal of light, Vaati noticed something odd. The portal was fading, and it was fading fast. In a few moments it would be completely gone, and Vaati's one chance would be wasted. He would have to choose quickly.

Frantically Vaati tried to make up his mind. What should he pick? He had no idea what to choose! The goddesses haven't given him enough time, he still needed to think things over! But the portal was rapidly growing dimmer, and he had practically no time left. It was now or never.

Without thinking, Vaati closed his eyes and stepped into the glowing golden portal. At once his body felt airy, and he was engulfed in the golden light of the portal. Then as quick as a wink, Vaati disappeared from sight, reentering the land of the living thanks to the goddesses divine power. Whatever the goddesses had in store for him, he was ready.

* * *

**So now Vaati is back in Hyrule and our adventure can really begin! Who else is excited!? I've waited so long for this next chapter, which is when the journey officially starts :) Yay! Even I'm excited, and I know what'll happen already! Now for reviews.**

**Legendoffun ~ **Thank you so much! Lol I liked that part too, just imagining his face XP that's too funny for words! Totally priceless :P I will try my best to keep it up. It's all thanks to reviews like yours that I know people care and it makes me want to write all the more!

**purplepanic ~ **I agree, there aren't enough Minish Cap stories on here! Thank you for your kind review, I'm glad you like my story :) haha yay for Vaati!

**Regallo ~** Although your review was for chapter 2, I really wanted to respond to it partially because of lack of reviews last chapter and also because you brought up an interesting point. Yes, Vaati and Zelda are both flawed in their own ways, and I'm glad you noticed that :) Most people only recognize Vaati as the one having any flaws, when really every character does. I'm suprised you noticed. As my favorite song lyrics say, "I've neer been perfect, but neither have you" (Leave Out All The Rest by Linkin Park) I try to make sure that all my characters have realistic flaws. Thank you!


	7. Second Chance

**Wow, two updates in two days! That must be a new record or something! :) This is coming along so well, and I'm surprised at how fast this story has been moving along. Thanks to the people who've followed and faved my stories, and to those of you who haven't but are still reading I really do appreciate it. Don't forget to leave a review!**

* * *

There was a blindingly bright light and a flash of white that appeared the very second Vaati stepped foot into the portal. Eyes still closed out of fear of what he would see if he opened them, he experienced a feeling of nausea as he was finally warped out of the four sword and made it back into the real world.

When the gross, sick feeling had passed and he was certain that his feet were firmly planted on the ground, Vaati tentatively opened his eyes. Sure enough he was no longer contained inside the dreadful sword but was now back in Hyrule, standing in some lush, grassy green fields. In the distance, Vaati could make out the beautiful Hyrule castle looming over the surrounding town. It was quite the wondrous sight, and it was the most glorious thing Vaati had seen in a long time. He had forgotten how pretty it all looked, and how much he had missed it.

Looking around himself to make sure that there was nobody else near him, Vaati walked towards the castle at a slow pace. He was savoring the feeling of the light breeze blowing at his cape and the lavender bangs covering half his face, as he had dreadfully missed the calming sensation of the wind blowing around him when he was in the sword. Not the slightest breeze had ever blown through the sword, and the air in there was as still and lifeless as the sword was empty and white.

Yet out in the open air once again, Vaati felt completely sure of himself and free. Where he was one with the wind, he felt as though he truly belonged. Not only did it make him feel completley happy, but it also provided him with the strength to use his powerful elemental wind based spells.

His spells! His magic! He would be able to use them now that he was free and out of that goddess blessed sword! Smiling to himself, Vaati pulled up his sleeves and readied himself to preform his favorite wind magic. He was excited to be able to use it again after not having been able to do so for however long he had been in the sword, and to him it seemed as though he had been in there for an eternity.

At his command, a lovely cyclone of air flew towards him with such strength that it almost swept him off his feet. His magic worked, and it was the best feeling in the whole world to him at that moment. Sending huge gusts of wind in every direction and summoning hurricane after hurricane, Vaati had never felt more alive. After a few more minutes of playing with his favorite elemental spells Vaati lowered his hands, laughing with delight and feeling completely rejuvenated. He was now ready to go.

Again he continued his walk towards the castle, when he abruptly stopped himself. He couldn't go there, he was a hated criminal who was thought to have been sealed away! Waltzing inside the palace walls was probably the very last thing he should be doing, as it would just get him killed on the spot or captured and held in prison. He inwardly scoffed at the mere thought of being kept up in some plain jail cell._ No one would dare hold me up in a_ _simple prison_ he thought, offended at the very idea._ Heh, I'd like to see them try._

But where should he go? The goddesses had said that upon entering the real world again, they would speak to him right away and tell him what his first task was. Until they came to speak with him, there was nothing for Vaati to do but wait for further instruction while trying to stay out of the sight of any townsfolk and not gain any unwanted attention. He was thankful that he had been warped into one of Hyrule's seemingly abandoned fields and not right in the center of the castle town. If that had happened he would have been spotted already for absolute certain.

Impatient and wanting to get a move on, Vaati stood arrogantly tapping his foot in the middle of the field. Since there was nothing for him to do but wait, he may as well show the goddesses just how displeased he was to be kept waiting. He huffed with annoyance. They were probably stalling on purpose just to teach him a lesson in patience. As if he needed them and their stupid lessons on self control...

Suddenly, Vaati noticed three glowing orbs floating gently down from the bright blue sky above. The goddesses were here at last.

As they arrived in front of the temperamental wind mage, they transformed into their gorgeous Hylian appearances as three stunning women. By now Vaati had grown used to seeing them up close and was no longer awed by their flawless grace and pure beauty.

"What took you so long?" Vaati asked with annoyance. "I've been here for quite a while already, could you have not come any quicker? I'd sort of like to start the tasks sooner than later if you don't mind."

Shaking her head, Nayru sighed. "You always were an impatient one. We took so long because we thought you might want to take in your wonderful surroundings and enjoy the beauties of nature. It's rather pretty, especially when compared to the blank emptiness of the four sword you've remained a captive in for the past while."

"Whatever, like I have time to enjoy the scenery." Vaati replied bitterly. "What do I care? I'm only here to get your damn tasks over and done with. So just explain what I have to do so I can be on my way, because I'm really not interested in putting up with this pointless banter."

"Well excuse me, but I thought you were going to stop speaking rudely to us." Din said, her tone of voice cold as ice and a look in her eyes that could have made anyone else besides Vaati burst to flame. "We have forever to wait around, and if you aren't going to speak nicely to us then why should we have to cooperate and tell you what your tasks are? Maybe we should wait a little longer until you've cooled down and have finally gotten that horrid temper of yours under control."

At this Vaati glared back at Din with a purely venomous look of total and utmost hatred. He wasn't used to having anyone reprimand him in this way, usually if he showed even a hint of anger at one of his servants for doing something wrong they would apologize profusely and beg for forgiveness in the hopes of not getting killed at his hand.

With the goddesses that wasn't the case, for they were fine with speaking to him however they wanted to, and Vaati didn't like it one bit. How dare they speak to him in such a demoting way, as though he was some common peasant or a child who needed a scolding? He was so much better and more important then that! They insulted him so much.

Unable to hold in his apparent anger, Vaati snapped back rudely. "I don't have a bloody temper issue, thank you very much. Kindly tell me what I have to get done on my first stupid task so I can do something useful and get away from you three. Right. Now."

Farore tipped her head back and laughed lightly, making a sound similar to the tinkling of tiny bells. "Why, you really _do_ have a rather nasty temper issue. I don't think we'll tell you anything until you properly apologize for your disgraceful behavior."

Vaati was stunned that they had not only called him out on rudeness yet again, but that they now wanted him to apologize for it. "Who do you take me for?" He exclaimed in anger and exasperation. "If you honestly expect me to apologize, you will be waiting for me to do so for a very long time."

"That's no problem," Farore said airily, enjoying Vaati's disbelief and display of hatred towards them. "We have quite a long time to wait. Actually we have forever, as we are immortal beings who never die. If you won't apologize to us, I guess we can just take you back to the four sword since we obviously aren't getting anywhere with you."

"What? No! Of course not, I refuse to go back there!" Vaati spluttered. Grudgingly, he added under his breath in the smallest voice imaginable "I'm sorry."

"Pardon me?" Nayru said. "I couldn't really hear you. Would you care to speak up please?"

Without stopping to think, Vaati exploded at the goddesses. "I'm sorry, okay!? I'm freaking sorry already! Now, did you hear me well enough that time!?" Taking a few deep breaths to calm himself after his outburst, Vaati looked expectantly at the goddesses with loathing in his eyes.

"Thank you for apologizing to us so nicely!" Farore chirped happily. At this Vaati ground his teeth and had a look of such unhappiness about him that the goddesses found to be quite amusing. They even had to hold back their laughter at seeing the wind mage acting like a spoiled child who had just been told off for throwing a temper tantrum. "Now I guess we can tell you about the first task," she continued. "Since it's main focus is about power, I think Din should explain it to you." She nodded towards Din, who continued briskly.

"Yes, well just as Farore said your first task is to test your power. So what better way to test your power then to battle a ferocious monster? We have taken one of the boss monsters you picked to face off against Link, brought him back to life and made him much stronger then he ever was before. Since you're an _all powerful sorcerer _it shouldn't be too much of a problem for you."

"Wait just a second," Vaati cut in, alarmed. "Exactly which boss monster will I have to face off against?"

"You'll know who it is as soon as you see him." Din replied. "I assure you that he is rather difficult to miss. After you have defeated him, we will come down to speak with you again to give you the instructions for your second task. Good luck!"

"Where do you expect I'll find him? Where should I go looking?" Vaati asked frustratedly. But the goddesses had already transformed back into the colored, glowing orbs of red, blue and green and were floating gracefully back up towards the sky. They had soon disappeared into the clouds above, leaving Vaati standing alone in the middle of the empty field with his unanswered questions still on his lips.

Grumbling to himself Vaati trudged across the field, making his way to the rows of trees on the other side. Oh how he deeply despised the goddesses. They always made him feel the two things he hated to feel the most - stupid and weak. Thanks to the goddesses he had no lead on where to start looking for this "boss monster", and he was now wandering around Hyrule aimlessly with the death sentence hanging over his head, paranoia and danger at every turn.

Again Vaati checked his surroundings to make sure that he was alone. He really didn't want to be caught off guard and taken in to the castle, as that was actually the last place he wanted to be. In the distance, he saw a figure walking towards him whom he could faintly hear calling out to him. He had barely made out the faint words "who are you" from the far away figure when he turned abruptly on his heel in the opposite direction and started to run.

Once he was off the field and hidden away in the dense lining of trees on the other side, Vaati stopped to catch his breath, panting. That was too close, that person had almost come close enough to recognize him! He couldn't let that happen again. With a sigh, Vaati realized that this was going to be much more difficult then he had originally planned.

* * *

**Well there you have it, chapter 7! Poor Vaati, always being told off by the goddesses. Want a hug Vaati?**

**Vaati ~ Argh not you too! Get away from me, to stone with you!**

**Me ~ Haha that doesn't work on me, I've got super awesome author powers XP**

**Vaati ~ I'm so done with this stupid story...**

**And with that it's time to respond to my wonderful reviewers!**

**Legendoffun ~ **I'm very glad you liked it, thank you! Your reviews make my day all the better :)

**purplepanic ~ **It was hard for him to make the decision to go through the portal, it was more of a last minute panic type of decision lol XP But yeah, he's in the real world now and stuff can finally get interesting! Thank you!

**Mage Vaati ~ **Hmm interesting take on things. I wouldn't say he's exactly going to turn nice, better maybe, but he'll never be nice. He doesn't really want to be completely nice either, there's always a part of him that will be evil so don't you worry! Haha I like evil Vaati best too :) Ooh now that's an idea! I hadn't thought of incorporating the Minish into this story except for at the prologue, now I have some new ideas... Thank you!

**Cheesecake Superstar ~ **Did you like what happened this chapter? :D Thank you for all the fabulous support!


	8. Electrifying

**This chapter was originally going to be called "Impossible" and was going to deal with explaining the difficulty of Vaati avoiding the many townspeople through out Hyrule, but then a thought came to me (which will be revealed soon in this chapter) so I had to completely change the idea for this chapter because my original plans wouldn't have made any sense with what I'd written previously. After I was done changing everything, the name "Impossible" just didn't work at all. So now it's called "Electrifying" and you'll soon see why! Ahh excuse my rant XP Enjoy!**

* * *

Making his way through the dense forest of trees, Vaati tried his best to get away from the fields as quickly as possible. He didn't want to experience another unexpected run-in with someone anytime soon. The thought made his heart skip a beat, and although he knew that he would easily be able to destroy a Hylian or turn one to stone, he wasn't interested with dealing with all the chaos that was sure to ensue after all was said and done. No, it was easier to lie low at this point then to risk unnecessary bad attention.

Now, if he was a boss monster where would he be? Vaati briefly wondered who exactly he would have to face off against. Hopefully it would be an easy monster to beat and not one who would pose an actual threat, although he was sure that the goddesses would try to make things as difficult as possible for him. Oh well, as long as he didn't have to battle that one boss monster...

No, that wouldn't ever happen. The goddesses wouldn't be so cruel as to do that to him, would they? They wouldn't even dare to think of doing that, right? Shaking his head, Vaati tried to clear his mind of these unwanted thoughts as he carried onwards through the trees.

By now Vaati had been walking through the trees for a few minutes, and he was beginning to worry. Why were there so many trees, was he lost? Starting to panic, Vaati ran forwards, propelling himself between the rows upon rows of trees. There had to be a way out somewhere.

Soon enough he saw a light at the end of the forest of trees, and thankfully reached it. Stepping out onto the other side of the overgrowth, Vaati heaved a sigh of relief. Silently he scolded himself for freaking out so fast. What an embarrassing moment that had been.

Yet for Vaati, being stuck inside of that haven of trees was probably the worst thing he could ever imagine, the branches closing in on every side of him with no way out. One of Vaati's biggest secrets ever was that he was completely claustrophobic. That was one of his greatest weaknesses, the one that he made sure nobody ever found out about. He would rather die then let Link know that his greatest fear was getting stuck in enclosed, tightly confined spaces.

Walking quickly so he could put as much space between him and the towering trees as possible, Vaati made his way towards the castle once more. He wasn't planning on actually entering the town itself, but he wanted to get near enough so that he could see if he could catch a glimpse of any strange disturbances. If there was a boss monster loose somewhere, he was sure that it's first target would be the town.

Now that he was nearing the town, Vaati would have to be more cautious. There were bound to be loads of people about, though how many he couldn't say for sure, and they would all be able to recognize him easily as the infamous wind sorcerer who had recently kidnapped the princess and held her as his captive.

Wait a second.

Grinning widely from ear to ear, Vaati realized with a start of great relief that no one would recognize him. They all knew him as the looming demon eye, not as the fair skinned, lavender haired Hylian. In fact, the only people from this era who had ever seen him in his Hylian form were Link and Zelda. Besides those two, nobody else would ever even guess that he was the all powerful wind mage!

Now not needing to be careful and wary of others, Vaati walked purposefully and with an air of arrogance and an unmistakable flair in his step. Looking at him now, he was the picture of self confidence. Why shouldn't he be? There was nothing for him to worry about now.

"Hey, you!" Called a voice from the behind him. "Wait up a second!"

Turning around, Vaati looked to see who had called out to him. "What do you want?" He asked in his usual arrogant manner. "I've got important things to do, so if you've stopped me for no reason you'll be very, very sorry."

"Oh, I'm sorry," replied the person apologetically. Now that they were closer to each other, Vaati could see that the speaker was a young female woman, who couldn't have been more then eighteen years old.

She had brown hair cut in many layers that glowed a million different shades of colours in the sunlight, from chocolate brown to auburn to a shimmering touch of gold. Her hair came down past her shoulders and her most defining feature had to have been her almond shaped, piercing violet eyes. Around her waist there was a green sash embroidered with the triforce, and her clothes resembled the look and style of the castle guards. She wore a blouse of white that had just one sleeve, a dark green skirt that cut off above her knees and sturdy brown ankle boots and gloves. On the shoulder that was visible, there was a small and mysterious tattoo of a red eye.

Although she wasn't exactly what you'd call drop dead gorgeous, there was a sparkle in her eye that was hard to miss, and she had a subtle beauty about her. From the way she stood with pride to the look on her face, Vaati could tell that there was more to this girl then met the eye. What exactly that was he wasn't quite sure yet.

"Sorry to bother you," the girl repeated again. "But it's my first day on the job as a palace guard, and I seem to have misplaced my sword. I was just wondering wether you'd seen one lying about anywhere?" She asked hopefully.

Sniffing disdainfully, Vaati rolled his eyes. This girl was wasting his time, of course he wasn't going to help her look for a silly sword. "No, I haven't seen it anywhere," Vaati snapped, annoyed. "Nor do I care. Maybe you should go and ask someone who actually cares and has the time to help you with your less-than-important problem." With that, Vaati turned on his heel and began to walk in the opposite direction.

Hurrying to keep up with his brisk pace, the girl followed after him much to his evident annoyance. "Could you please spare a few minutes to help me look? I would ask someone else, but there's no one around besides you! Everyone's at the festival in castle town today celebrating the annual day of the goddesses, so you're my only hope. Please?" She looked up at him with her big, pleading eyes and Vaati, being the uncaring and cold hearted person that he was, merely brushed her off.

"I told you, my dear, I have no time to help you. Even if I did have the time I wouldn't help you because you're nothing more than an annoying, pesky little brat! Leave me be," Vaati said impatiently. He was so uninterested in dealing with this girl right now and he wished that she would just leave him alone.

"Don't you see?" The girl asked desperately, tears welling up in her eyes. "I'm supposed to be guarding the festival that everyone's at right now, I can't do it without my sword, and I've got to get there right away or else the princess will be really mad at me!"

At this, Vaati's ears perked up. "The princess, did you say? Surely it would be the captain of the guardsmen giving you heck for being late, and not the princess herself?"

Shaking her head no, the girl replied sullenly. "I've just completed my training to become not just an ordinary guard, but the princesses guard specifically. That's why I'm only just starting on the job today. Usually you can become a regular guard at the age of sixteen, but being the princess guard takes two years longer in training. I've worked two extra years for this day, and it's going to be ruined!"

Wow, so this girl was the princesses new royal guard? She must be pretty important then, probably skilled too. They didn't just let anyone become the princess guard. Oh well, she'd eventually have to learn to fend for herself anyways. He was most definatley not going to provide any help to her. "Good for you," Vaati said with sarcasm dripping from his voice. "Frankly I don't care, so I'll give you five seconds to get away from me before I do something to _make _you get away. You wouldn't want that to happen, now would you?"

Shocked by the rudeness of his tone and cruel choice of words, the girl took a step backwards. "There's no need for you to be so mean to me." She said, hurt evident in her voice. She heard Vaati mutter "whatever" under his breath but she continued talking anyways.

"I hope that if you are ever in need of anyone's services like I am to you right now, they will not help you. You are a truly unkind person who doesn't deserve anyone's help, ever!" With that the girl walked away in silence, leaving Vaati standing there alone to let her words sink in.

_Why should I care about what she just said, like I haven't heard that accusation before_ Vaati thought. _She's just a mere peasant, her views don't matter anyways. _Put off by the girls leaving words, Vaati walked onwards towards the castle town.

Noticing a side path with a sign beside it labeled "to Hyrule castle," Vaati cut away from the worn path used by most to get to the castle and made his way down the other, seemingly shorter path. Everything was oddly quiet, no birds chirped and even the faint sound of the wind blowing through leaves was gone. Unfazed by these odd happenings, Vaati kept up the same brisk pace along the path, always looking straight ahead. Little did he know that this path went unused for a reason.

All of a sudden, a horde of wild moblins jumped out from one side of the brush, and a group of electric chus appeared from the other. Unprepared, Vaati jumped backwards from the moblins that were trying to surround him, and as he readied a spell to blow the monsters off their feet, he stumbled right into an electric chu.

Vaati gasped in pain as a huge volt of electricity shot through his body, paralyzing his limbs and making him unable to move. With a thud he fell hard to the ground, arms and legs refusing to work. By now the other electric chus had surrounded him, taking turns shocking him with electric volts. The moblins were drawing near in a tight circle around him, and it sounded like they were laughing at the scene being played out before them. Tears swam in Vaati's eyes as the pain quickly became unbearable. There was nothing for him to do but try to bear the agonizing pain, and he knew that he wouldn't last much longer like this.

Just as he felt himself losing consciousness due to having gained multiple severe electric shocks, he heard a disturbance in the plants behind him. Suddenly the girl he had spoken with just minutes before rushed out next to Vaati, slashing away at the moblins and electric yellow chus with a gleaming, silver sword. _Ah, she must have found it after all _Vaati thought. Just then a bigger then normal chu the girl had yet to defeat gave Vaati a huge electric shock, the biggest and most painful one yet. Grimacing, Vaati stifled an agonizing scream and felt darkness pass over him. The last thing he saw before he lost consciousness was the girl slashing the offending chu in half with her newfound sword.

Blackness engulfed him once again.

* * *

**That chapter changed a lot from the way I had originally planned it, I wasn't going to have him pass out again or be unable to defeat some simple monsters, but then I realized the townsfolk wouldn't recognize him and I had to change the chapter completely. This is just sort of the result of my creativity lol :P I hope you all liked it! By the way, the mysterious girl was my OC! She's finally been introduced yay! Props to anyone who can guess what the tattoo on her shoulder is ^.^ Sorry to leave you at a cliffhanger, and now, time to answer to my reviews!**

**Cheesecake Superstar ~** Wow, thank you for that super long review and amazing feedback! Thank you so much for the great constructive criticism, I'm especially glad to hear that you like the way I portray the characters and that they are always _in _character! Honestly I can't stand reading stories where the characters are too OCC, you know? As for the ways I can improve, thank you for those! I'll keep it in mind when writing future chapters, as my goal is to grow as a writer as much as I can while writing this fanfic :) I'd love to give you writing tips sometime! Feel free to PM me any specific questions you have about my writing style and I'll gladly answer them.

**Mage Vaati ~ **Hehehe somebody is sure good at reading in between the lines ^.^ I tried to hint at it again at the beginning of the chapter, good job for guessing that! Yes the goddesses are the most annoying characters ever, especially in Vaati's opinion!

**Legendoffun ~ **Thank you, I'm glad to hear you liked it! I laugh when Vaati is angry too, I guess it is contagious lol XP writing those parts is so much fun, I get to make him as mad as I want without destroying his character ^.^

**purplepanic ~** Thank you! I agree, part of why I like writing Vaati so much is because he has such an in-depth character with many layers. He's arrogant with a cool demeanour on the outside, but as you delve deeper you realize he's just a lost, confused individual who sometimes does need a hug :D (Even if he'll never admit it)


	9. An Ally

**Now we can delve deeper into the character of my OC! Good news, I finally came up with a name for her! I'm so glad, it took forever to think of. Now, I wanted to take a moment to thank my viewers, and those who've followed and favorited my story and left a review. You guys are all so amazing and supportive, I am so glad you all like this fanfic. So without further ado, here is chapter 9! **

* * *

"Hey, wake up! You're breathing so that means you aren't dead, right? C'mon, please wake up!"

Slowly regaining consciousness and blinking profusely due to the harsh sunlight, Vaati opened his ruby red eyes. What had happened to him, and why was he lying on the ground in the dirt no less? He felt achy and sore all over, his body stung at every slight movement and his arms and legs felt numb from their recent paralysis.

Suddenly the memories came flooding back to him in a wave. He regretfully recalled the group of laughing moblins, the blasted electric chus, and the mysterious girl who had ended up being his savior in his embarrassing time of trouble...

But why had she still come to his rescue after he'd treated her so poorly and had clearly told her to get lost? It made no sense, and dammit, her actions dearly hurt his pride. She shouldn't have helped him! If she had been in trouble like he had, Vaati wouldn't have come to her aid, would he?

"Oh, thank the goddesses you're awake, I was so worried about you!"

Looking up, Vaati reluctantly met the bright violet eyes of the girl who saved him. She knelt over him, gazing back into his eyes with a worried yet relieved look on her face. Smiling, the girl said kindly, "I got rid of all the monsters for you, so if you want to rest here for a while it's safe to do so without the worry of being attacked again. I'm sure you've had a rough time, but everything is safe for you now." She spoke softly and consolingly to the battered mage.

Taken aback by her nice attitude, Vaati made a tart reply. "I'm absolutely fine, thank you very much. I haven't had a _rough time_ and I most definitely don't need any help, especially not yours." He spoke to her acidly so to hide his embarrassment at being found in such a weak state. "I don't care if there are monsters around or not, and even if there are any I could handle them myself with ease."

Laughing, the girl relpied to Vaati brightly, much to his disdain. "Do you really think that you'd be able to handle some more electric chus in your sorry state? I hate to break it to you, but you couldn't even handle them when you were feeling well, so you obviously wont be able to deal with them right now! You should be thankful that I came to save you when I did, or else who knows what would have happened to you."

"I could have defeated them if you hadn't butted in," Vaati said in a desperate attempt to retain his better-than-thou attitude, though it was difficult to do so when this girl kept pointing out his recent failures. He was disliking this girl more and more with each passing moment.

Sighing, the girl replied with an undertone of exasperation. "Do you honestly believe that, or did you just say that to save your self absorbed pride?" She asked, with a slight hint of implied mockery and humor. "You're an interesting one. Usually a person would be grateful to have been saved from a fateful incident like that! Would you have preferred it if I'd left you there to die?"

"My dear," Vaati began arrogantly. "I'm neither grateful nor happy that you _saved me,_ especially since you did so when I obviously didn't need any saving. And I wouldn't have died, though by the dear goddesses I'm sure that you wish I had died, and I would have handled the situation just fine on my own! I'm rather powerful, and don't you dare try to say that I'm not. You have no idea."

"I wouldn't wish death upon anybody, even on an ungrateful person like yourself. Aren't you the least bit glad that I helped you even though you didn't help me when I needed it? If anything, you should be thankful that I helped you out because you didn't deserve it. Why, I had to rescue you from a mere electric chu and you're saying that you're a force to be reckoned with!? From the looks of it, I'm much stronger then you are by a long shot!" The girl huffed angrily, finally getting fed up with the wind mage and his stuck up behavioral issues.

"Now listen here, I am _much _stronger than you - arghhh damn-" Vaati cut off abruptly, grimacing in pain. He had tried to pull himself up into a sitting position, but doing so was to strenuous on his limbs, thus sending a horrendous jolt of pain through his body. For a second he closed his eyes, and when he opened them he profusely blinked back tears. This electrifying pain was probably the worst he had ever been in, but he refused to let this girl know just how terrible it was. That would be much to big of a blow to his already shattered ego.

"Hey, maybe you should rest for a bit. It seems your body took quite the beating, and you don't look too well either," the girl said, a hint of sympathy replacing the anger in her voice.

"Ugh," Vaati groaned. This had to be the most embarrassing day of his life. First he was told off by the goddesses, then he was defeated by an electric chu of all things, and now he was rescued and being sympathized over by a simple peasant girl! Could his day get any worse?

"Don't you have somewhere to be?" Vaati asked gruffly after the initial discomfort wore off. He was still in pain, but he didn't want that girl to continue feeling sorry for him. Her concern for him made him feel sick.

"Oh, do you mean the festival I mentioned earlier?" The girl asked. "Why yes, I'm supposed to be guarding the princess there, but in training we learned that as a palace guard our first priority is to protect and help the citizens of Hyrule, so I think they'll make an exception for me today. I mean, you definitely look like you need help right about now."

"I told you I don't need your help," Vaati snapped sharply. "Go off and guard the princess at the festival for all I care, if you really want to help me then you'll leave me alone."

Shaking her head in disbelief, the girl spoke again with no intention of leaving. "You aren't okay and I'll prove it, since you obviously can't see so for yourself." With that remark, the girl slapped Vaati hard on the leg, sending another spasm of torturous pain throughout his body.

"Ahh, what was that for!?" Vaati cried as he doubled over due to the excessive pain. He couldn't take it anymore, and was unable to blink away the pools of moisture forming in the corners of his eyes this time. It hurt him so much to have another person seeing him when he was so _weak_, and there was nothing he could do to help it.

The girl merely rolled her eyes. "I'm only proving to you that you aren't okay or as strong as you think you are, and that you _do_ need my help. Now will you admit that you're in need of assistance?"

"Never," Vaati muttered through clenched teeth, slightly trembling because of the agony he was in thanks to those stupid chus and their electric shocks.

Exasperated, the girl completley gave up on convincing him he needed her help, and instead she brought up a new topic. "I don't think we've been fully acquainted yet," she said, the usual bubbly kindness returning to her voice. "My name is Lexi, what's your name?"

"Lexi? Is that short for something?" Vaati asked with real curiosity. He had never heard a name like Lexi before, it was unique in its own strange way and he was curious as to why she was named that.

"No, it's not short for anything. My name's just Lexi, plain and simple." Getting a faraway look in her eyes, she added solemnly. "It's supposed to mean protector. My dad wanted to name me that, because being a protector was basically what he lived for..." She trailed off sadly, then snapped out of her daze and looked back at Vaati. "You still haven't told me your name yet, what is it?"

"My name," he began haughtily, "is Vaati." Wait a second, he probably shouldn't have told her that. Now she was sure to suspect something, even if the townspeople didn't know what he looked like they would surely recognize his name and the well-known, infamous title that came along with it.

"Vaati?" Lexi questioned. "That sounds so familiar, I swear I've heard that name before. I'm pretty sure it was the name of someone important too. But where did I hear it?"

Hastily Vaati cut in, breaking her train of thought. "It probably doesn't matter. Um, so what exactly are you going to do to help me get out of this mess? Although it pains me to admit it, its not exactly going to be easy for me to get on with what important things I've got to do in my current state."

"Oh right!" Lexi exclaimed, remembrance brightening her gaze. "I've got a red potion with me. That'd heal you up quick!" Rummaging through her leather shoulder bag, she soon pulled out a glass bottle filled to the brim with a bright red liquid.

"That would have helped earlier," Vaati said, annoyance lacing his tone. "You couldn't have mentioned that, say, ten minutes ago, could you?" Narrowing his eyes, Vaati tried to raise his hand to grab the bottle, but cringed in utmost pain when another shock sent tremors through his body.

"I've got it," Lexi said calmly, bringing the bottle to Vaati's lips. Gently she poured the contents of the bottle into the wind mage's mouth, and once the potion was drained Vaati felt a warm sensation spread throughout his body. Soon, his limbs relaxed and no longer did he feel any pain from the chus electrocution. He was now fully healed and it was all thanks to Lexi, though he would never dare to admit it.

Sitting up with ease Vaati stretched his arms, enjoying the feeling of being able to move again. It was wonderful, and had been greatly missed.

"Yay, you're feeling better I take it?" Lexi asked. Not waiting for a response she continued talking happily. "So where exactly are you in such a hurry to? You said earlier that you had someplace important to be."

"Why yes, I do have someplace of importance to be," Vaati replied, his self centered demeanor returning again. "I've got to go find a hugely threatening monster that I've heard has returned to terrorize Hyrule, so if you'll excuse me I'd best be on my way."

"Woah, really? I never knew there was a big monster on the loose! In that case I'd better come with you! The festival in castle town is almost over by now anyways, and since I've been helping you I'm sure my absence will be excused. What better way to test out my swordsmanship skills than to battle a truly ferocious beast?" Lexi finished excitedly, looking at Vaati with adventure lighting her eyes.

"I'd prefer to go alone-" Vaati started, but trailed off into concentrated thought. Maybe he should take this girl along with him. She's already proven to be useful in combat, and if he had to defeat that one boss monster he'd rather not have to deal the finishing blow himself...

Making up his mind Vaati said wearily, "okay, you may accompany me. Just for now though, and if you get to be too annoying I won't be afraid to kick you back to Hyrule palace where you belong."

Surprised, Lexi exclaimed gratefully. "Really? I can come?" She had expected him to put up more of an argument about why he shouldn't come with him, but oh well, he was letting her tag along! She was so glad! "Thank you, I'll be useful, I promise!"

Standing up, Vaati muttered a single sentence under his breath. "You'd better be."

* * *

**So my OC's name is Lexi! If there is anything you particularly like or dislike about her character so far, please PM me or leave a review to let me know. I'm not completely sure how I want her character to develop, so if you have any ideas please let me know! Now to respond to my reviews.**

**legendoffun ~** Do you still like my OC? I hope so! Also, were you satisfied with her name? :) Haha yes, good does come to those who serve others so I don't know why any good came to Vaati when he didn't deserve it ^.^ Lol nobody can stop Vaati from saying ignorant things, that's a part of him we'll not be able to change. Thank you so much!

**LovleyKiridia ~** I love Vaati too, he is my favorite LoZ villain! Thank you very much, I'm so glad to hear that I keep him in character! The last thing you want is a character who's so OCC that they're barely recognizable -.- Your praise means alot, so again, thank you! :)

**Mage Vaati ~ **Thanks, I'm glad to hear you liked that chapter! Haha yeah, rude Vaati was even ruder in this chapter XP Besides his looks, his personality is definatley the best thing. Yay, good to know you like my OC! Yes, she is like Impa in a way... *suspenseful music* more about her will be revealed in a later chapter, I promise!

**purplepanic ~** Wow, it was your favorite chapter!? Thank you so much! Typical Vaati, being a jerk to his rescuer when he wakes up :P No surprise there! Ooh and the questions start coming... Will she be the one who breaks him? I can assuredly say that she'll play a pretty big part in that...

**Cheesecake Superstar ~ **Yay I'm excited for your next long review! Thank you, I'll try my very best!


	10. At The Festival

**Here is a new chapter for all my wonderful readers! As usual, thank you for the support! This chapter had to be split into two parts because when I wrote it, it was over 3000 words long. Sorry, that means you'll have to wait another chapter until we reach the power task, but believe me, it will be action-packed and totally worth the wait. Until now, enjoy!**

* * *

Making their way along the outskirts of Hyrule castle town, Vaati and Lexi traveled in search of any disturbances that could have possibly been caused by a big boss monsters behavior. Not having any idea of where would be the best place to start their search, they decided to begin by venturing near the town. Usually monsters would be attracted to wreaking havoc in the most well populated areas, and out of all of Hyrule the town was easily the place which contained the most people.

"Which big monster are we searching for, exactly?" Lexi glanced over at Vaati with a questioning look in her big violet eyes. Looking around, she made a wide gesture with her arm. "I personally don't see any threats to Hyrule around here."

Sniffing, Vaati replied cooly. "I don't know which monster we're looking for, but it's supposed to be pretty obvious when you see it. Believe me, it's definitely around here somewhere."

"How do you even know that, did the goddesses tell you this or something?" Lexi asked sarcastically, a small smirk playing on her lips. Vaati's answer to her smart remark sure surprised her.

"If you must know, then yes, the goddesses did tell me."

At this, Lexi turned towards him in complete disbelief. "Wait, what? Are you serious? No, you can't actually be serious..."

Rolling his eyes, Vaati answered her back with annoyance. "My dear, of course I'm serious. Do you honestly think I'm one to tell humorless jokes? The goddesses did actually tell me about there being a threatening monster on the loose, but it's up to you wether you decide to believe me or not. I for one don't care what you think, and I know what I witnessed."

"I don't know what to believe, honestly, but if what you say is true then why did the goddesses come to speak to _you _of all people? I mean, not to be rude, but you'd think they would talk with our hero Link or the Princess Zelda first if something bad were to occur."

At this Vaati turned so that he was fully facing towards Lexi and suddenly stopped completely, holding out an arm for her to do the same. In a low whisper that sounded more like a threatening growl, Vaati spoke a string of quiet words in her ear. "I've got my own reasons for my actions and theirs, ones which I don't think I'll be sharing with anybody anytime soon. Now if you're just going to be a nosy pest, feel free to leave. I don't want to have some tag along hindrance following me about."

"I-I'm sorry, it's just sort of hard to believe that the goddesses came to _you.._." Glancing over at Vaati, she noticed him about to make another remark and quickly amended her words. "I mean, it's not that I don't believe you! That's not it at all! So, um, where do you suggest we start looking for the monster?"

Grateful of the change of topic, Vaati answered her back with less of a cold tone then he had used before. "I don't know, usually monsters like wreaking havoc in big crowds to gain attention. There's only one monster I personally know who would take the more practical approach to things because he's actually a somewhat smart monster. So, how about going into castle town? It's the most populated area around here."

"Alright, sounds like a plan. Wait a second," Lexi began suspiciously. "How do you know so much about monsters, and who's this 'one monster' who in your opinion is actually smart?"

"Again dear, don't ask unnecessary questions that you won't like the answer to."

"What do you mean, questions I won't like the answer to-"

"Shush," Vaati said, annoyed. "I just told you, you probably won't like the answers to the questions you just asked, and I'm personally better off not telling you anything. Let's leave it at that. Understand?" There was now a glint of fiery anger in Vaati's visible red eye that was hard to miss, almost as though he was holding back an explosion of unkempt rage.

Somewhat worried, Lexi gulped nervously. "Yes, I understand." She said, and just like Vaati had asked of her, she left it at that.

Regaining their well-kept pace, Vaati and Lexi made their way to the castle town with questions buzzing in their mind. Lexi knew that Vaati was hiding something, as it had been part of her training as a palace guard to be able to tell when someone was either lying or keeping back important information, whereas Vaati was curious as to what Lexi's reaction would have been if he had answered her questions with the truth. Shaking his head, Vaati made up his mind that some things were better left unsaid.

"We're here!" Lexi exclaimed suddenly. Snapping out of his thoughts, Vaati looked around in awe at his surroundings. He had never before been at this exact spot in Hyrule, right at the entrance to castle town. When he had been to the town before, he hadn't stopped to take in the sights but had just hurried to capture the princess while gaining lots of attention by wreaking as much havoc as possible in the process. Now he knew what beauty he had been missing.

The town was alive with festivity, even thought the festival of the goddesses was almost at an end. Citizens of Hyrule were roaming gladly about everywhere, checking out the soon to be closing stalls and attractions set out especially for the festival. Warm rays of sunlight reflected off the eye catching turrets of the legendary Hyrule castle, and there was not a building in sight that wasn't positively glowing with good feeling.

"Wow" he breathed softly. Looking over at him, Lexi smiled. "It's beautiful, isn't it?" She commented happily. "I love this place."

Hating that he had been caught off guard actually admiring Hyrule, Vaati sniffed. "Hmph, it's okay I guess." He said, quickly changing his awestruck attitude into an uninterested tone. "I've seen better."

"Oh, and where have you seen better? There is no place better, this is the crown jewel of all of Hyrule!" Lexi said. Hands on her hips she looked over at Vaati, feeling defensive of his dismissive attitude towards her home town.

Laughing, Vaati replied arrogantly. "You wouldn't believe me if I told you. Honestly though, I've seen much better before, something better then Hyrule castle especially." He thought wistfully of his glorious home at the palace of winds. What he said was true, his palace was no match even for Hyrule. _It's too bad that Lexi has truly no idea what she's missing_ Vaati thought, smirking to himself.

"Fine, whatever. You can pretend all you want that you've seen something more amazing than this wonderful town, but I know better!" Lexi wouldn't let her lively attitude dampen, she was too happy to be back in the heart of Hyrule witnessing the festival, even if it was the end.

"Won't the guards who see you ask why your off duty? I mean, you were supposed to be guarding this event, weren't you?" Vaati asked Lexi, arrogant as ever. He had this attitude that seemed to say he knew better than her, and was expecting her response to be along the lines of 'I'll be in trouble'.

Her chipper response wasn't along those lines at all.

"Yes, I'm sure they'll ask where I've been, but I've got a good excuse." Looking over at Vaati, she added, "because I was helping you! They'll be fine with me missing it, even glad I helped another! I'll probably be praised, even though I was only doing my job."

Sighing, Vaati corrected her. "You didn't rescue me, I could have helped myself out of that mess, thanks." His attitude had quickly changed from superiorly arrogant to coolly annoyed. "I'm strong, I would have been fine on my own. If anything, there was no reason for you to abandon your post as a guard today."

"Vaati, we're not going to go over this again!" Lexi said exasperatedly. "Honestly, I saved you from a truly _electrifying_ fate," she said, a smile playing on her lips. Knowing she had struck a sore spot in Vaati and not wanting to hear one of his snide comebacks, she quickened her pace and walked along ahead without him.

"Hey, where are you go-" stopping short, Vaati realized where Lexi was headed. She was making a beeline straight for a crowd of townsfolk and guardsmen gathered around two important people in the middle. These people were none other than the princess of Hyrule herself, Zelda, and her hero Link. Link was typically dressed in his green tunic, but it was new, clean without stains of battle wear. Zelda on the other hand, Vaati had to notice, was absolutely stunning. She had traded out of her usual pink dress and red bow, and had on a light lavender outfit especially for the occasion. _My, that color is rather fitting on her _Vaati thought._ You know, now that I think about it she is quite the gem..._

Feeling color rush to his cheeks, Vaati realized what he had just been thinking. He pushed away the thought, and pretended not to see Lexi waving him forwards from the outside of the crowd. No doubt she wanted to introduce him to the princess, and little did she know that they had already been acquainted rather well. No, the last thing Vaati needed was for Zelda and Link to spot him and recognize him, that would surely send the town into a frenzy knowing that the evil wind mage who was said to have been sealed away had escaped yet again.

Turning his back on Lexi, Vaati tried to ignore her further urging and walked a few paces away into the shadows of a nearby building so he wouldn't be seen. Watching, he saw Lexi approach Zelda and Link with a curtesy. Were Zelda and Link together now, as a couple...? Not that he cared, of course. Caring about the stupid princesses love interest was beyond him.

He noticed Lexi gesture towards where he had been standing moments ago, and Zelda and Link look over at where he had been. Link saw nothing and turned back to talk to Lexi again, but Zelda kept looking, her watchful eye scanning the area thoroughly. Vaati winced as her eyes skimmed over the place where he was hiding. He could swear her eyes flicked back towards where he was hiding a couple times, almost as though she thought she saw something but couldn't be sure. In the end, she shook her head and turned back to face Lexi as well.

After a few minutes, Lexi curtsied again and left the crowd, returning to Vaati. Looking around for a moment, she scanned around until spotting Vaati in the shadows. Making sure the princess was leaving with her back turned, Vaati stepped out of the shadows of the building and walked over to Lexi. Confused, Lexi asked him a question. "What was that about?"

"I've told you before, some things are better left unsaid. Now, did you tell the princess and Link what my name was?" Vaati asked, unusually concerned.

"No, I just said I had a friend with me. Why?" Lexi asked, her brows furrowed.

"Good," Vaati said in relief. "Come on, let's go. I don't think there are any monsters around this area of Hyrule. Let's look somewhere else." With that, he turned swiftly on his heel and made his way out of castle town, Lexi following closely behind.

* * *

**And there you have it! I hope you enjoyed reading :) Now, to respond to my reviews!**

**Mage Vaati ~** I love his rebellious personality too, and I'm very glad to hear that I write it well :) Thank you! I'm so happy that you like my story!

**Legendoffun ~** Thank you so much ^~^ *sigh of relief* I'm so glad you like the name Lexi, what a relief! I didn't know wether or not readers would like it, so I'm very glad to hear that you do! Thanks for all your marvelous support!

**Melkor'sOnlyLieutenant ~ **Haha yeah, gratefulness just isn't in his character :) Vaati fangirls like us know that well! Oh, he will definatley fix that shattered ego, he always does. Yay I'm glad you like Lexi! I don't often like OC's either, so it was hard trying to make an OC that people would be okay with and like as a character. Me too, I probably would have smacked him ^.^ I guess Lexi did smack him, but just on the leg, to prove a point... Yeah that doesn't really count lol never mind XP For the fight, if I get as much emotion and feeling as I want to include, my hopes are that you _will_ cry :') Thank you, and not to worry. I love long reviews!

**Lovely Kiridia ~** Haha yeah he should, but it's too much for his ego to actually be grateful towards someone! Haha I like that word too - Lexicon XP Thank you!

**purplepanic** ~ What ever will we do with you Vaati? :P She is really nice, sometimes even a bit too nice for her own good *cough* that's her biggest weakness *cough* I love writing Vaati in a weaker state, even though it's a challenge to do correctly. Thank you!

**Cheesecake Superstar ~** Yay! :D Thank you for the support!


	11. Monster Hunting

**Hello everyone! Sorry this chapter is really long, like more so than normal. Actually idk if it is, it just feels like it was longer to write. Haha I didn't get carried away, no ^.^ anyways, enjoy!**

* * *

The two figures made their way further outside Hyrule, now leaving the outskirts of castle town. They walked in silence, not exchanging a word between them. That is, until Lexi spoke out of sheer curiosity.

"Vaati," she began tentatively, breaking the silence. "What exactly happened with you back at the festival? I mean, I wanted you to meet the princess and Link, but you just..." She trailed off, thinking about how Vaati had looked _worried _at the sight of the princess and her hero, and she had to ask herself more then once her eyes hadn't been playing tricks on her or if Vaati really had shown a brief moment of nervousness.

Purposely avoiding eye contact with her wide violet eyes, Vaati looked straight ahead. "I just wasn't... Interested in meeting the princess and her _Hero_," he said venomously, spitting out the word as though it left a bitter taste in his mouth. Of course he wouldn't tell Lexi the real reason he had hid from Zelda and Link, that they would either lock him away or kill him on first sight. He had a feeling she wouldn't take to hearing that bit of news very well.

"There's more to it then that," Lexi stated accusingly. "You're hiding something big, I can tell." Sighing, she lowered her gaze. "You know, if you ever wanted to tell me about whatever it is, I won't judge you. I know we just met, but if you need to talk I'll always be available to listen."

That stunned him, and he couldn't find a bitter sentence to retort with.

"I don't have anything to hide," he said, full of arrogance so to vainly hide his surprise. He didn't want her to know how unexpected that comment of hers was for him to hear. "Even if I did, it's not like I'd tell you anything."

"Oh, stop pretending," Lexi said. "I've been trained as a guard, and as I said before I know when a person is withholding important information. I can tell you are, and you don't have to tell me anything. It's just that, if you ever want to talk, I'm letting you know that I'll listen without accusation. Everyone makes mistakes, and if you did something or saw an event occur... Well, I know how hard that can be to face alone. Just know that I'm here."

"Um," Vaati began, uncharacteristically unsure of himself for once. But it didn't matter what he said next, because Lexi was already lost in her own train of thought with her normally bright eyes slightly dimmed. He even thought that he could see pools of moisture forming in the corners of her eyes as she thought about a past event, but he couldn't be sure. Shaking his head, he carried on walking at a brisk pace with Lexi now trailing slightly behind him.

After a few more minutes of this awkward silence, Lexi asked, "where are we headed now exactly? Not just aimlessly wandering around, I hope."

"No my dear, are most definitely heading towards a particular place," Vaati replied, his voice as full of attitude as ever.

"Then where are we going? There's nothing along this barren route but Death Mountain."

Smirking, Vaati replied to her over his shoulder with superiority. "That's exactly where we're headed, I'm glad you finally noticed." His tone contained this mocking, demoting quality almost as though he was calling her out on stupidity without even speaking the words aloud.

"Why are we going there? It's practically the most dangerous place in all of Hyrule!" Lexi exclaimed animatedly, her arms flailing about to emphasize her distress.

"I know, and what better place for a ferocious boss monster to make his hideout?" More to himself then anyone, Vaati muttered, "if it's who I think it is, he's made that mountain his hideout before."

Lexi was getting more worried by the second, as she'd only ever heard horror stories about what was on Death Mountain, and she'd yet to journey there herself. By the goddesses, she had never even been to the base of the mountain! "How do you even know that!? Anyone else would think you personally knew these boss monsters from the way you speak of them!" Lexi stated, her voice coming out shakily.

Her words struck a cord with Vaati, and he tried not to let on just how deeply they had affected him. "I've got more experience then you may think," he stated darkly. There was an edge to his tone that suggested that they were already too far into the conversation for his liking. Lexi could tell, and decided not to press that topic further.

"Just one more thing," she began slowly. "How far up do we have to go? Surely not the whole way, right?"

"That's where you're wrong," he spoke in a bored drawl. "We're going right to the top of the summit, because that's where the monster will be. I'm sure of it."

Upon hearing this, Lexi gulped. Her hint of nervousness didn't evade his ears, and being the emotionally insensitive man he was, he felt the need to make a stinging remark. "Oh my darling, you aren't _scared _are you?" He asked, fake worry lacing his words.

Narrowing her eyes, Lexi bravely replied. "No, I'm not scared. I've just never been up there, that's all. But hey," she said, trying to put on a brave face. "There's a first for everything!"

Ugh, her enthusiasm was annoying. Vaati couldn't stand hearing her contagious cheerfulness, it was driving him insane! The moment her usefulness wore out, he would be getting rid of her as quick as a flash.

By now they had approached the base of the mountain. Out of the corner of his eye, Vaati could see Lexi staring up at the summit in combined shock and awe. "Enough staring, lets go," he snapped, and began to make his ascent up the mountain. Lexi, shaking her head out of the daze she had been in, followed closely behind.

Onwards they trudged up the trail, through tunnels and past caves without any uncalled for monster disturbances. Vaati had to admit that Lexi was keeping up rather well. After her initial shock had worn off, her eyes had narrowed and she climbed behind him with this tireless energy about her, as though making it to the top of the mountain was the most important task in the world.

When they were just over halfway up, Vaati spotted some Keese flying overhead. Uninterested in dealing with them at the moment, Vaati directed his hands at the Keese and quietly muttered his favorite, most patented spell. "To stone with you!"

Immediately, the Keese turned to nothing more than grey slabs of stone, and plummeted from the sky down to just a few feet away from where Lexi was standing. Upon impact with the hard ground of the Death Mountain path, the Keese statues shattered into a hundred tiny pieces. Vaati smiled to himself, pleased that his spell had worked so perfectly.

Lexi however had not been expecting some Keese to drop from the sky as stone statues. Upon their impact with the ground, she jumped slightly and let out a surprised screech. "Ahh! What was that!?"

"I'm sure it was nothing-" Vaati began, but Lexi wasn't paying him any attention, which left him feeling slightly miffed. Instead, Lexi had left the path and was looking at the broken stone pieces of the remains of the fallen Keese.

"I wonder what could have caused this," she asked to no one in particular. "These look like... These look like they used to be Keese!" She exclaimed in newfound realization. "Vaati, you've got to come see this! It's like something turned the Keese to stone while they were flying in midair!"

"Wow, I wonder what unnatural being could have caused that amazing display," he replied sarcastically. "Come on, this doesn't affect us at all. Let's get a move on!"

"But what if the thing that turned these Keese into stone turns us to stone as well?" Lexi asked, looking around.

Vaati was finding it extremely difficult not to tell her that it had in fact been him who had caused those Keese to turn to stone. Oh, how that girl was getting on his nerves. "No one is going to turn us to stone, I guarantee it!" Vaati said, annoyance slipping its way into his tone of voice. "Stop worrying and come on!"

Still not fully assured that she wasn't at risk from being turned to cold stone, Lexi left the broken stone Keese and stood up, heading back over to the trail. "Alright," she said with a suppressed sigh.

"Good," Vaati huffed, his typical bad temper flickering dangerously high. If he had to put up with one more thing from this girl... Well, she had better prove herself useful when battling that boss monster.

For the rest of the way up the dangerous mountain path, the pair only encountered a few octorocks which Lexi easily destroyed with her sword. Vaati could have dealt with them in mere seconds, but he didn't want to turn them to stone and have another incident like he had earlier involving the Keese, nor did he want to flauntingly show off his supreme wind sorcery just yet. So he decided to wait until the surely epic boss battle before demonstrating his powers in what was sure to be a most eye catching display of pure talent. Now that was something he was looking forwards to.

Finally, after what must have been a few hours of travel, Vaati and Lexi had almost reached the top of the mountain. It was now nightfall, and they had to be especially careful of where they stepped, to make sure they didn't slip and fall to the rocky depths of the mountain below.

"We're almost there," Lexi said. "So, which monster do you think will be there?"

"I can't say right now, but I only hope my suspicions are incorrect," Vaati said. Outside he seemed calm and ready to fight, but inside he was as nervous as could be. What if it was that one monster... What would he do? Would he be able to fight him? These questions were eating away at him inside, slowly tearing him apart. He had nothing to do but put these thoughts at the back of his mind and hope for the best.

Suddenly, Lexi saw a near-black silhouette of a person running silently up the mountain path, not ten feet away. Quickly they ran upwards towards the top of the mountain until they were out of sight. Lexi blinked, not believing her eyes. That body shape, that tunic, and the hat, they were all too familiar characteristics. The person she just saw had looked exactly like Link, but just darker, sneakier and less noticeable. No, she must be imagining things. It was late, and she was tired. That's all it had been, right?

"We're here," Lexi said minutes later when they too had reached the top of the mountain. Looking around, Lexi didn't see the man from earlier. It must have been her imagination.

So now they were at the very top of the mountain, overlooking all of Hyrule. Yet something was missing, where was the monster? There was nothing in sight!

Just as Lexi was about to make a remark about how pointless their escapade had been, she saw Vaati's eyes widen in shock and turned to see what he was looking at. Her reaction was the same feeling of shock that was clearly evident on Vaati's face.

Flying high in the sky above them was a huge, monstrous bird. It had glowing yellow eyes, red and white feathers decorating the rim of the wings and black feathers on the main body. Long tail feathers of yellow and green trailed majestically behind in the wind, and this beast had a beak as sharp as a blade. This bird was truly a force to be reckoned with, and in a moment of shock Lexi realized that this bird was heading straight towards them.

Feeling weak in the knees, Vaati cursed at the goddesses. How dare they do this to him! It could have been any monster at all, but no, they just had to choose this one. The one he had previously been closest allies with, the only one he had ever called a friend. Now they would have to fight to the death, and there was nothing he could to to help it. His nightmares had come true, and he would finally have to fight him.

The Helmaroc King.

* * *

**Did any of you guess who the monster was before hand? Are you suprised? I hope you liked the results, and now it's time to answer to my wonderful reviewers! Thank you all again for the great support** **:)**

**Legendoffun ~ **Thank you, I'm very glad you liked it! Haha yeah, that would have been so funny! He's not scared exactly, he just didn't want a run in with Link (as you can guess, that wouldn't have gone too well) so I guess he was just being smart and thinking quickly...? It did hurt his pride though, thats for sure! He would just die if he was chained up in a dungeon like a common on criminal, that would destroy his ego even more.

**Midna213546 ~ **Thank you so much for your kind words! It's things like these that make me want to write more ^~^

**Zetra Shink ~ **Aww, thank you! Vaati is my favorite villain too, much better than Ghirahim XD

**Lovely Kiridia ~ **I agree, that wasn't the best idea on his part, but imagine how embarrassing it would be for his ego to go by a fake name! He would have been crushed, completely unable to handle it XP Haha, I think 'Lord Vaati' would have been a bit much, but I wouldn't have put it past him. Yeah, I think he does have a crush on her! Ooh wonder how that'll play out...

**Melkor'sOnlyLeitenant ~ **Haha yes, he does seem jealous, doesn't he ;) Yeah, he can be pretty intimidating sometimes. Hmm, I think Lexi may already be suspicious. Imagine just how surprised she'll be next chapter when he demonstrates his sorcery! Yes, Lexi will fight. She doesn't have a sword for nothing!

**purplepanic ~ **Thank you! He's not jealous, is he...? I guess well have to see how that possible romance plays out ^.^ I'm glad you think so, I thought it fit his character as well. Haha I like that comparison! I'm excited to write them fighting alongside each other too!


	12. The Fight

**Alright, so remember how I said last chapter was really long? Well, this chapter is really, really long! My longest one yet! It was very interesting and pretty hard to write, so I hope everyone enjoys it. Sorry I haven't been updating as frequently as I had been before, I'll try to get updates out faster! For now, enjoy!**

* * *

Coming closer by the second, the looming bird flew towards the two stunned figures at the top of Death Mountain. Vaati and Lexi stood stock still, eyes wide and mouths agape. Lexi had never seen a monster of such ferocity before and was scared out of her wits to be facing it, whereas Vaati just couldn't believe that the goddesses would make him go through with this battle.

As much as he didn't want to, he would have to fight. It was either that or fail the power task and be sent back into the dreadful four sword for eternity. The goddesses had told him that if he wanted forgiveness he would have to work hard to get it and prove that being forgiven was really what he wanted. Vaati knew that he was willing to achieve it by any means, even if it meant destroying one of his closest allies and friends.

The Helmaroc King flew gracefully to the top of the mountain and landed right in front of Vaati and Lexi, sending a slight tremor through the ground. With a deep voice, he spoke first.

"It's been a while since we last saw each other, wouldn't you agree Vaati?" Helmaroc asked with a slight tip of his head. "I'm ever so glad the goddesses granted me life again, and now I'm stronger then I ever was before. Practically unstoppable, wouldn't you say?"

Upon hearing these words and the casual, if somewhat antagonistic way this humongous bird had greeted Vaati, Lexi gasped. A thousand questions swam in her mind, but one particular question stood out above the rest. How did this monster know Vaati? When they were done with this fight, he was going to have some serious questions to answer.

Vaati was still in denial, and at a complete loss of what to say. "Helmaroc," he choked out. "Why have the goddesses made you the monster I will have to face?"

"Why Vaati," the Helmaroc King said, pretending to be offended. "I thought you would be _glad_ to see me again. I was dead, and now I'm back! You should be _happy._

"I should be _happy _about having to fight you!?" Vaati cried indignantly. "Why would I be happy? We were allies, even friends, and now we have to fight! How good is that?"

"But I'm back," Helmaroc said sourly. "My death wasn't pleasant, and neither is a monsters afterlife, but now I am alive and well again with just one catch. To stay alive I must defeat you, and although I will regret having to harm you and your little friend," he paused, taking a moment to glare at Lexi before continuing on. "It is what I must do, therefore I will stop at nothing to destroy you. As you know very well, a fight isn't over until the last death blow has been dealt."

Vaati looked away from the Helmaroc King's cold gaze with hurt in his eyes. He was having trouble processing this information, and it was destroying him to do so. His former friend had just made it remarkably clear to him that his main goal was to see him laying dead upon the floor, and even though there was nothing Vaati wanted to do more than call a truce he decided against it. Just like Helmaroc, Vaati was going to fight his hardest and wouldn't dare to loose. He wasn't known by all monsters as the Lord of the wind and sky for nothing.

"Will this little girl be fighting as well?" The Helmaroc King asked Vaati with a slight sneer. "I don't care either way."

"Absolutely," Lexi said, standing tall. "I'm fighting, because you're a threat to Hyrule and it is my duty to protect this area for as long as I live! I dont care about disagreements between you and Vaati, because you two seem to have quite the history," Lexi shot Vaati an accusatory glare. "You are dangerous and evil, and you must be destroyed."

Laughing aloud, the Helmaroc King replied humorously. "Haha, so I'm dangerous and _he_ isn't? I'm only about as much of a threat to Hyrule as he is!" Helmaroc began laughing again, looking back and forth between Vaati and Lexi.

"What do you mean? Vaati's not a threat. Bad tempered and rude, sure, but not evil and threatening!" Lexi replied, looking confused.

With a shake of his head, Helmaroc looked at Vaati with mock pity. "Oh my, how little you've told her about yourself. Does she really not know anything?"

Glaring, Vaati responded shortly. "I've told her before, some things are better left... Unsaid."

Lexi didn't know what to make of this exchange between the two foes. She was so lost, and didn't understand why Helmaroc would insist that Vaati was threatening. He hadn't shown any signs of being a threat, but the Helmaroc King was a big monster who would know who was threatening or not. Maybe she should listen to him... But she had known Vaati a bit longer. Why would she take the word of a monster over a Hylian? It made no sense, but something in her mind was warning her that there was more to the lavender haired Hylian then met the eye. She just wasn't sure what it was yet.

"Let's get started, shall we?" Helmaroc asked, stretching his wings.

"Certainly," Vaati replied. Even though he sounded overly confident, there was an unsure glint in his eyes that was easy to miss and well concealed. Vaati stood in a readied stance to preform magic, while Lexi unsheathed her silver sword and got into a fierce battle position.

With a screech, the Helmaroc King flew into the air and nose dived straight towards the pair on the ground. Expecting something like this, Vaati summoned a cyclone around himself and was swept out of the monsters range. With a snarl, Vaati noticed Lexi was still in the area the Helmaroc King's attack would hit and sent a strong gust of wind at her, knocking her off to the side at the last second and out of the bird's mighty reach.

When she was out of the way Vaati ran straight past Lexi, who was looking dazed on the floor, and went right at the Helmaroc King.

Thinking on his feet, Vaati created two powerful energy spheres and shot them towards Helmaroc with great force. Helmaroc saw at the last second what Vaati was doing, and leaped into the air, barely avoiding the glowing spheres.

Vaati narrowed his eyes in concentrated thought. He personally knew that the Helmaroc King was practically indestructible, for his body was covered in razor sharp feathers that hurt to touch, and he wore a strong mask to hide his only weak spot. Remove the mask and he was vulnerable, but it was getting close enough to him without him ripping you to shreds that was the problem.

Up on her feet again, Lexi gripped her sword tightly and readied herself to strike. She had promised Vaati that she wouldn't be a burden, and so far she noticed that she wasn't doing a very good job at that.

Dive-bombing again specifically towards Vaati this time, the Helmaroc King flew downwards with amazing speed, his sharp beak directed at his opponent. Vaati got out of the way while shooting more energy spheres at the bird but they did no damage upon impact, much to Vaati's major disappointment. He had hoped that they would have had some sort of effect on him, but they didn't at all.

Just as Helmaroc was about to fly into the sky for the third time, Lexi took her chances and jumped with her sword above her head, sending it crashing down along the Helmaroc King's flank. Though his strong, sharp feathers made it harder to cut into, it didn't block the attack completely and he was left with a long but shallow gash.

At this, Helmaroc turned abruptly towards Lexi. Unafraid, Lexi gripped her sword tighter and held it at the ready, waiting for an opportunity to attack. "I've got to pay more attention to you," he said angrily, disgruntled because Lexi had actually managed to deal a blow to him.

Now that the Helmaroc King had his attention focused on Lexi, Vaati figured it would be the perfect time to strike. Now knowing that his energy spheres wouldn't work, he used his wind magic to lift up big, surrounding rocks and hurl them hard at the unsuspecting monster bird.

Yelping in surprise as a bunch of boulders pummeled him from every direction, the now bruised Helmaroc King left Lexi alone and flew into the air out of Vaati's range. This time, instead of diving at the duo head first, he fiercely beat his wings and sent a slew of razor sharp feathers raining down upon them. It was as though it was raining recently sharpened daggers.

Lexi winced as she felt a feather slice her arm, and ran out of the way of the falling feathers. Frantically she looked around for Vaati, and was relieved to see him okay with only a few minor cuts and scratches. Lexi had to admit that she was surprised with how well Vaati was faring, for she had honestly thought that after the electric chu incident he would be a weak and inexperienced fighter. Maybe he just had a bit of bad luck with the electric chus and was really stronger than she originally thought.

Noticing Lexi watching him, Vaati decided to give her a taste of just how powerful he was. He wouldn't miss this perfect chance to show off! He wanted her to realize just how strong and utterly powerful he was, for it hurt his pride to have her doubting his superiority.

Gracefully leaping into the air with powerful gusts of wind at his side, Vaati created a perfect tornado which he sent spiraling upwards at the unsuspecting Helmaroc King. Loving the feeling of power that came with displaying his abilities, Vaati created a few mini cyclones and thrust them around Helmaroc to keep him in place. Now that he had him where he wanted him to be for a moment, Vaati had time to prepare a humongous energy sphere, his strongest attack, and sent it up at Helmaroc's beak in a vain attempt to loosen his mask and reveal his one vulnerable spot.

The energy sphere crashed into Helmaroc at full force, painfully knocking his mask but not fully loosening it. Vaati cursed under his breath when he realized that the only thing he had managed to do was slightly stun his enemy. Now what should he do? That had been his most powerful attack! Sure, he could transform into his demon eye and smack that mask away with his claw, but then Lexi would see his as a monstrous threat and recognize him as the evil wind mage who had recently terrorized Hyrule. He didn't need to get rid of Helmaroc and Lexi, two of his allies, on the same day.

Lexi stood open mouthed in shock as the scene that had just played out before her. Had her eyes been playing tricks on her or had Vaati really just preformed _magic?_ It was hard to believe, but she knew that her eyes hadn't deceived her. There were a million things she wanted to ask Vaati right now, but it wasn't the time to do so because she noticed then that the Helmaroc King was about to send another round of sharp feathers down upon them.

Now she was ready and swiftly rolled out of the way of the array of feathers, wincing because of the stress it put under her deeply cut and now heavily bleeding arm. This time however, Vaati wasn't as lucky.

She watched in horror as a multitude of feathers fell around Vaati. Looking up, Lexi saw the Helmaroc King preparing to send another round of knive-feathers down, and frantically wondered why Vaati wasn't moving out of the way. She silently shouted in her mind for him to move, but he didn't.

Now that she looked closer, she saw that Vaati seemed to be struggling to move. In shock she realized that Vaati simply _couldn't _move due to the fact that several fallen feathers had pinned his cape to the ground. Gulping, she looked away as she saw the one that had gone through a foot, still sticking out and gushing with warm blood.

Thinking fast, Lexi ran at Vaati and knocked him out of the way just as the latest batch of feathers rained down, tearing the end of his cape in the process. She tried to ignore his scream of pain as the feather that had been stuck deep in his foot was suddenly wrenched loose, and she just muttered, "sorry, but you'll thank me later."

Gritting his teeth, Vaati tried to stand strong, hiding his new limp, and prepared to summon another hurricane when Lexi spoke to him. "This isn't working, and unless we do something soon that bird I guarantee it will make a lucky hit with some of his feathers and stab us to death!" As Lexi said this Vaati noticed she was clutching her arm to stop the bleeding from her cut as much as she could. It looked painful, yet Lexi hid her discomfort well.

"Well _darling, _what do you suggest we do," Vaati asked arrogantly while trying to conceal the pain coming from his own foot wound. "We don't really have time to come up with some big plan - watch out!" Vaati finished hurriedly, forgetting his arrogance and creating a sudden cyclone to rush him and Lexi away from the newest downpour of feathers.

Panting, Lexi gasped, "and how did you even do that!? You've got magic, sorcery! What are you?"

"This is no time for questions!" Vaati snapped. "Ask me later if you're so curious, but for now we've got to focus on the battle at hand, thanks!" He muttered something frustratedly under his breath and turned to face the Helmaroc King.

Suddenly, Lexi made a sharp intake of breath. "What is it?" Vaati asked, already annoyed at her and trying to focus on making the next move. "Seriously, just shut it."

"No, no, no," Lexi said quickly. "I've got an idea that'll work!"

"Great," Vaati grunted, making a protective shield so to block the next set of oncoming feathers. "I can only keep this force field up for so long, as it drains my power pretty quickly, so tell me what your idea is fast. It better work..."

"Okay, so you've got these magic powers, correct?" At this Vaati nodded his head and gave her a look that said to hurry up. "Good, so it seems to me you control air and wind, so would it be possible for you to lift me up in the air?"

"Wait, how far are we talking about?" Vaati asked suspiciously.

Lexi answered abruptly, "up to where the Helmaroc King is. If you send me up there, he won't expect it and I can take my sword and slice it at his mask. Hopefully he'll be dazed enough to come down here, where you could deal the last blow with an energy sphere or whatnot."

Although he had to admit it was a good plan, Vaati really didn't want to be the one to deal the last blow to this monster who had once been a friend. That would be too much for him, so he suggested another plan.

"How about this, I don't want to send you up flying because its too risky, if you get hit off balance by Helmaroc you could easily tumble down and fall to your death. How about this; I can send a huge boulder or two up at his wings to knock him out of the sky, then when he comes down you can use your sword to get off the mask and deal the last blow. While you're doing this, I'll have the wind raging down upon him so he can't move an inch."

Lexi nodded her head in agreement. "Okay, sounds like a plan." She noticed Vaati's arms starting to shake from the effort of keeping the force field up around them for so long, and the attacks Helmaroc was trying to deal were becoming more forceful. Vaati wouldn't be able to hold up much longer.

"I'm going to let down the force field in a second, and when I do so get out of the way," Vaati said. Not giving her a chance to respond, Vaati lowered his arms in exhaustion and the protective force field around them dropped. As soon as this happened, Lexi did as she had been told and ran.

Vaati sprung into action, and using his magic he summoned two of the biggest boulders and shot one at each of the Helmaroc King's wings. Not expecting an attack, Helmaroc was unprepared and didn't have enough time to get out of the way of the boulders. They hit his wings hard and this put him off balance, sending him plummeting to the ground. With the wind at his command, Vaati stayed true to his word and sent it crashing down on Helmaroc so he stayed immobilized on the ground.

Lexi then rushed in with her sword. Going straight up to the monstrous bird, she slammed her sword down hard on his mask a couple times until it was completely off his face, leaving his vulnerable spot exposed. With a deep breath, Lexi closed her eyes and slashed her sword straight into his head.

Eyes wide, the Helmaroc King let out a strangled breath and a few final words. "I-I've lost again... But at the hand of a friend. Vaati, well played. You always were Lord of the sky for a reason."

With that he exploded into a puff of black smoke as all monsters do when they die. Vaati and Lexi now stood, sides heaving, as they let the news sink in. They had won, which was great news for Lexi, but bittersweet for Vaati. He tried to forget the look in Helmaroc's eyes as he spoke his final words, but he was sure it would haunt him forever.

Little did they know that behind a large rock hidden in the shadows, a lone figure had watched the entire fight unfold before him with much interest. Looking very much like Link, a man with a hat and tunic of pure black, bright blue eyes and dark purple hair stood stock still, letting what had just happened before him sink in. After a few moments of pondering silence, Shadow Link turned away and began heading down Death Mountain with one goal in mind. "My," he said softly. "Lord Ganon will be interested in hearing about this."

* * *

**Shadow Link? _Lord Ganon? _Woah, who knew huh? Good job to the few of you who noticed Shadow Link last chapter, I tried to make it clear it was Shadow and I'm glad you got the hint! Sorry for my inability to write battle scenes, I tried! *cries* Now it's time to answer to my fantastic reviewers!**

**Legendoffun ~ **Yay, was this chapter as good as you expected? I sure hope it was, I did my best to write an action packed chapter filled with the right amount of violence and emotion. I can only hope it turned out as such. Lexi didn't have much of a chance to react to Vaati's powers this chapter, but she definitely noticed and will be seriously questioning him about it next chapter, just you wait! Hehe, that should be interesting *evil grin* Thank you!

**Lovely Kiridia ~ **I agree, he was a wonderful boss! I loved him in Wind Waker especially, and was very glad he was one of the most important bosses in that game. I've actually never played four swords either, so I had to do my research and see which boss would not only be the most physically challenging for Vaati to defeat, but one that would cause some emotional scarring as well. I saw that Helmaroc was a boss who worked closely under Vaati so I just thought "hey, I could make this work!" Thank you very much!

**Melkor'sOnlyLeitenant ~ **Really? I'm glad you liked that line, I was quite a fan of it too! You've got to admit he _is _pretty emotionally insensitive XP Haha yes that was pretty silly of him. Come on Vaati, of course she's going to notice if a bunch of Keese suddenly drop from the sky as stone statues! I would have reacted the same way too :) You were right, it was Shadow Link! But why is he working solely for Ganon now? Hmm suspicious... I love her happy-go-lucky attitude too, thanks!

**purplepanic ~ **I know, I'm such an evil author *laughs* haha sorry Vaati, it just wouldn't be as interesting if you only had to fight a physical threat, may as well make it hard emotionally as well :D Vaati didn't want to fight, but he knew he had to, so he just tried to make the best of it I guess. I hoped you liked this chapter!

**Midna213546 ~ **Thank you so much! I'm glad to hear it was suspenseful and there was ample detail :) It's kind reviews like yours that keep me writing!

**Also, if like to give a thanks to Regallo, Staraline Sane, and my new Guest reviewer for reviewing to previous chapters :) Your support is truly appreciated!**


	13. Questioning

**Hello to all my wonderful fans! Argh I'm so mad right now at this website, the autocorrect doesn't work when I'm editing my work and just moments ago I saved my edits and was ready to post when it didn't save and EVERY EDIT I had made over the past hour and a half got deleted *cries***

**But that's enough of that, so please, read on!**

* * *

Beat up and bloodied, Vaati and Lexi sat down on the nearest good sized rock with heaving sides and burning pain coming from their new wounds. They both looked as though they'd seen better days, and were almost passed out from exhaustion. Unable to keep their eyes open any longer, as it was now the middle of the night and they were both very tired, Vaati and Lexi soon fell softly asleep.

Lexi had a lovely, peaceful sleep. Curled up on the ground she sighed softly as she slept, looking as beautiful and youthful as an angel. She was the picture of grace, even with her injured arm, battered body and slightly torn clothing. Soundly she slept through the night, preparing to wake to a well-rested morning.

Vaati had a sleep that was the complete opposite of Lexi's. Unable to fall asleep even though he was tired, Vaati tossed and turned all night replaying the recent battle in his mind. When he did manage to reach subconsciousness, he had dreadful dreams and horrid nightmares of multi colored flying birds dropping lifelessly from the sky and his dead former friend, the one he had a hand in killing.

Waking abruptly some hours later in a cold sweat, Vaati immediately shielded his eyes from the bright sunlight shining down upon him. It was now late morning, and Vaati noticed Lexi already awake and trying to unsuccessfully tend to her own wounds.

"Good morning," Lexi said when she noticed Vaati awake. Her tone was chipper as usual, but it now contained a new, weary edge to it almost as though she was now unsure about him. He wasn't surprised, for yesterday he had preformed some pretty amazing magic without giving her an explanation of why he could do so. Sighing, he figured he was going to have to answer some of her questions if he wanted to keep her by his side as help.

The truth was that as much as he hated to admit it, he actually _did_ want her help. He wouldn't have been able to defeat Helmaroc without her, and he knew that she was strong and would be useful for the two tasks he had left to complete.

"Morning," he said tiredly. Yawning and stretching his sore arms above his head, he asked her a question. "What are you doing exactly?"

"Oh, I'm just dealing with my wounds," she replied. "Well, I'm _trying _to atleast. So far it isn't working too well. My cut is pretty deep, I've not got any real medical supplies, and I used up my only bottle of red potion on you back when you got shocked by those electric chus."

"Ugh, seriously, how many times are you going to bring up those damn electric chus?" Vaati grumbled. He was in a sour mood, and Lexi bringing up his past failures wasn't helping things one bit. "Don't bother trying to mend that cut," he added as an afterthought. "I'll fix it."

Getting up slowly, Vaati limped over to where Lexi was sitting. He had to move at a slow pace and tried to walk on his injured foot as little as possible, for the place where Helmaroc's feather had stuck into it still hurt like you wouldn't believe.

When he reached Lexi, he knelt down beside her and held out a pale hand over the gash on her arm. "This won't hurt at all, just hold still. I don't usually use healing spells because they weaken me extraordinarily, but this is one of those times where I've got no other option."

Lexi instinctively flinched away. "I'm okay, thanks. I don't really..." She had wanted to say that she didn't trust his magic, but she knew that he wouldn't take to hearing that very well. "I don't want you to waste your energy on me," she finished lamely.

At this, Vaati rolled his eyes. "I can guess that you don't feel safe with my magic yet, but just let me use this spell and I'll explain anything you have to question me about after. Really, my dear, you could at least trust me a little."

Still unsure, Lexi moved her body so that her injured arm was right underneath Vaati's outstretched hand. "Okay," she said. "Do what you've got to do, but after this I want some real answers. Truthful ones."

Shaking his head in acceptance, Vaati closed his eyes and muttered a string of unintelligible words under his breath. All of a sudden the tips of his fingers glowed a soft blue hue, and Lexi felt her hurt arm grow warm. She watched in awe as her arm glowed the same blue color as the tips of Vaati's fingers with a tingling sensation that spread through her wound. Quickly the pain subsided and her cut seemed to mend itself. When she looked at her arm again the cut was completely gone and the pain had disappeared.

Vaati opened his eyes and inspected her arm. Satisfied with his work, he placed his hands gently overtop of his own injured foot and closed his eyes, muttering the same healing spell as he had used on Lexi. "Thank you," Lexi said to him once he had finished mending his own wound. She could see what he meant by it being strenuous to his energy, for he was now slightly shaking with exhaustion.

Vainly, Vaati tried to hide his tiredness and lack of energy. "I'm fine, it was nothing," he said. "Now that that's out of the way, have you got anything on your mind you'd like to ask me?" After saying this, he briefly paused. "Wait, let me reword that. What do you want to ask me about my magic, since you're obviously uncomfortable around me now and have something important on your mind."

Slightly taken aback by the abruptness of his question and evident sharpness of his tone, Lexi decided to start with a question that was straight to the point. "Okay, so where did you learn to do magic?"

"That in itself is a pretty long story," he began. "In short, I used a magical artifact made by a race other than the Hylians to wish for sorcery. My wish was granted, obviously, and that's about it. I got my magic through a wish granting object. Sure, I tried learning magic through spell books and such, but they were useless and my _master _was an exceedingly stupid old fart who was completely incapable of teaching anything! I was more a slave than a student under him!" Pausing for a moment Vaati looked past Lexi into the distance, seemingly remembering an old memory. After a moment of silence he added, "but surely that's not all you wish to ask...?" He trailed off, looking expectantly at Lexi.

"That can't be everything! Where's the detail, the important facts? Which race was it that made this magic object, and what artifact granted you the wish?" Lexi asked Vaati quickly, waiting to hear more of his story.

"My dear, you never said you wanted intimate detail," Vaati said haughtily. "All you said was that you wanted me to answer your questions with complete truth, which I did. Next time, be a bit more specific."

Lexi sighed. "Well, now can you tell me again _in detail _how you gained your magical abilities?"

"I already answered that question," Vaati replied stubbornly. "I won't be answering the same question twice, so move on to a different question or don't bother asking me anything at all."

"You're downright impossible, did you know that?" Lexi asked exasperatedly. "Fine, we'll do it your way and move onto a new question. Now, I'm rather curious as to how you knew the Helmaroc King. He made it seem like the two of you had been friends, but how is that possible? He's a monster!"

Vaati tried to think of a way around that question, as he desperately didn't want to answer it. The thing is, he really didn't want to have to explain his past to Lexi just yet but saw no other option then to do so if he wanted to keep her around as an acquaintance... Or possibly a friend. Sure, she could be annoying at times, but she was a valuable asset to have and provided him great assistance. Maybe she deserved the truth.

Just as he opened his mouth to speak, Lexi added to her question. "Also," she began hesitantly. "Why did Helmaroc say you were a threat?" Lexi wasn't sure of she wanted to know the answer to this, but she felt as though it was something that was necessary information to obtain while she could. If she didn't ask Vaati, she was sure that question would bother her for ages to come.

"I may as well tell you everything, and tell it to you truthfully," Vaati sighed. "You see, I've never told _everything_ about myself to anybody, and I'm sure no one knows much about the real me but the goddesses themselves. It may be nice to have someone to share things with, an informant of sort. I wouldn't know; I've never really had anybody be around me for this long without trying to kill me or lock me up in a prison cell. It's rather refreshing to be around someone who isn't only around to spill my blood."

"What are you talking about?" Lexi asked with shock. "Why would people want to kill you? That makes no sense!"

"If you would listen then I'd explain," Vaati said tartly. Upon hearing this, Lexi promptly shut her mouth and waited for him to speak. She would soon be in for quite the shock of a tale.

"Where to begin?" Vaati asked himself tiredly. "Well, how about I spare you the depressing backstory of the little orphaned and abused boy who was teased by others because of his odd looks and never taught anything by his dumb old geezer of a master. I'd also like to leave out any information about my origins, as I prefer to never think about those days if possible. Instead I'll skip to the important stuff."

"It all started when I got my hands on the wishing cap, a magic hat my master had been working on for quite some time. By that point in my life I had grown tired of the physical abuse and constant teasing and taunting by my peers and had completely given up on seeing any good in the world. I was ostracized, the center of bullying and on the receiving end of severe beatings from others my own age. Those times were such a hard blow to my self esteem, and rarely did I have any feelings of self worth at all back then, which is why I hold onto it so closely now. Everything turned dark to me, and I thought that by taking the cap I'd be able to get back at the world for treating me so cruelly. Why did others deserve happiness when my own life had been nothing but insufferable agony? It wasn't fair."

"With the power of the cap I wished to become the greatest sorcerer alive. I did many things that I wish needn't have occurred, such as kidnapping the princess of Hyrule not once but twice over the last eight thousand years, and releasing monsters everywhere to terrorize innocent people who never had anything to do with the painful childhood that drove me to unleash such horrible beasts. I was changed, and I know that I'll never go back to being anywhere near someone who's _nice._"

"Before my second defeat, I had a conversation with my captive, Princess Zelda. I realized that I had been wasting my time in an unending cycle of loss and failure, and I hated being the villain. It was getting old, but what choice did I have? It was a path that had been laid out for me ever since I put the wishing cap atop my head. I have no regrets," he said hastily. "But more than once did I dream about what the life of a hero might hold."

"When the time came I battled Link and lost, as would be predicted of the villain. I was sealed away in the four sword for the second time when the goddesses paid me a visit. The three of them offered me something that I'd never have guessed they'd offer in a million years; a second chance."

"They said that if I completed three specific tasks in Hyrule they would grant me full freedom and forgiveness. If I fail any of the tasks I will immediately be sealed in the four sword again for eternity. It was a chance I took, and that's pretty much where my life is at right now. Defeating Helmaroc was the power task assigned to me by Din, and next I believe will be the wisdom task from Nayru."

"As for where I knew Helmaroc, we used to be allies. He was the closest thing I'd ever had to a friend, and now I helped kill him." Vaati laughed bitterly. "How's that for irony? I still can't believe the goddesses made me go through with that..."

Looking Lexi straight in the eye with all the seriousness in the world, Vaati made an ending statement. "If you hadn't guessed already, I am none other then Vaati the wind mage, the evil demon eye who recently threatened Hyrule and captured the princess. That's why I hid from Link and Zelda at the festival, because I would rather if they didn't see I was still alive. I'm sure you would agree that upon first sight they would either lock me up or kill me on the spot."

Now that he was done, Vaati scanned Lexis face with his eyes to try and distinguish any emotions such as anger, shock, or horror. There was shock alright, but above all he saw mostly blissful acceptance. To Vaati's surprise, Lexi gave him a small smile.

"Oh, Vaati," Lexi began. "I told you before, everyone makes mistakes and I promised earlier not to judge you on past decisions. What matters is that you trusted me enough to tell me, any you're in the process of trying to change from your old ways. That takes real guts. Also, you seem genuine. Not that what you've done in the past is right, but atleast you did it for a reason. I trust you, so thank you for trusting me as well."

"Also," Lexi added as an after thought. "I'm quite surprised that you're _the_ Vaati. Honestly, you're not as bad as the stories say you are."

"Hmm, what exactly do the stories say?" Vaati asked with feigned interest.

Laughing, Lexi replied. "They say that you're an all powerful demon, vile and cruel, stopping at nothing to achieve power. I don't know about the stories, but you don't exactly live up to that description!"

Offended, Vaati replied snarkily. "How so? I thought that sounded pretty spot-on."

"Need I remind you about the electric chus?"

"_Why _must you keep bringing that up!?" Vaati exclaimed angrily. "Those were stupid creatures that obviously don't realize who they messed with. I swear, one day I'll eliminate their entire species for the humiliation they caused me."

"No need to get so worked up about it," Lexi said, stifling giggles. Calming down, she asked, "so now what do we do?"

"Wait, so that's it?" Vaati asked, confusion lacing his voice. "You're still going to come with me? Even though you know who I am and what I've done?"

"Well, yes," she replied kindly. "You have a big journey ahead of you, and it sounds like help would be nice to have. I mean, really, that's what friends do."

_Friends_. The concept of forming an actual friendship was new to him, but a lot of things had been new to him of late. Maybe this new friendship would turn out to be something truly worthwhile.

* * *

**Aww, Lexi and Vaati make such good friends! They're complete opposites, which is always fun to write ^.^ I know I promised to mention some more about Shadow Link and Ganon this chapter, but it would have stretched far too long. Sorry, but I promise I'll explain more about that aspect of the story next chapter. Just you wait!**

**Melkor'sOnlyLieutenant ~ **That was so in character of him to do XP I always thought it would be funny to have him show off at the most I opportune times, so I included it as soon as I got the chance! Haha, I wouldn't have put it past him! I feel so bad for Helmaroc too, but sadly he had to die :( I love Helmaroc, so it was rather depressing to write. I wouldn't be so mean as to make Vaati deal the finishing blow... Although I must admit that I did think about it at one point ^.^ Was the questioning satisfying? I hope you enjoyed it!

**Lovely Kiridia ~** Thank you so much, you've got no idea what a relief that is to hear! I'm glad it ended up being as epic as I had hoped it would be ^~^ Oh yes, she was questioning him alright! She wanted some answers, and gladly she got the information she was hoping for. I'm glad it didn't go poorly as well, Vaati needs a friend right about now :)

**purplepanic ~** Awe thank you so much for the kind words! :D Yeah, poor Vaati :( It was difficult for him, but it regretfully had to be done. Yay for Shadow Link! I was very excited to bring him into the story. It's going to get interesting from here on out...

**Legendoffun ~ **Oh my goodness thank you! Wow, reading that review made me so happy :D That truly means alot to me! But you are such an amazing author too, your action scenes are superb and I think you have great writing skills. I'm so excited to write more about Shadow Link! Oh those Keese, it'd be pretty hard to ignore stone Keese statues falling from the sky, huh? I would have reacted the same was as Lexi had as well :) Again, thank you so much for your nice review, and yes, it was definatley long enough!

**Zetra Shink ~** You've got to love the intensity! Thank you, I was looking forward to adding Shadow Link for a while, and I'm glad so many people were happy about it as well :) Oh, I've got a few other tricks up my sleeve... *grins mischievously*

**Guest ~** When I read your review I decided to start reading the Equestrian Wind Mage. I must say, I was skeptical at first but now I really like it! Thanks for telling me about it :) As for the Zelda timeline, it's pretty difficult to understand, especially since there are three different eras to follow along with, and I'm sure that people who aren't super fans of the LoZ series would find it confusing. I was super glad they brought Vaati back as a recurring boss in four swords, as he is my favorite villain, but the way he returned was pointless and wasteful. He didn't grow as a character, and was only brought back depicted as a weak antagonist! I hated how he was portrayed, and it could have been done so much better.


	14. Dark Servant

**This chapter starts out from the antagonists POV, which is something I won't be doing often. If anyone has any questions about where the plot is headed, feel free to PM me! For now, enjoy.**

* * *

In a dark structure, camouflaged by shadows and not easily noticeable to the untrained eye, a hidden dungeon lay in wait of a victim to succumb to it's daunting puzzles. Inside, at the heart of the temple, a gerudo man stood in an empty room waiting for his servant to return bringing new information. Impatiently he drummed his fingers and looked around, wishing for a way to pass the time. Suddenly, a new figure burst into the room with news to bear.

"Shadow," said the gerudo man. "What took you so long? I sent you out yesterday, and it's been hours since then. Surely checking to see if there were any boss monster survivors shouldn't have taken that long?" He arched an eyebrow, waiting for a response.

"Many apologies, Lord Ganon," Shadow Link replied, slightly inclining his head in respect as he spoke. Shadow wouldn't admit that the respect he was displaying was forced, or that he wanted nothing more then to rip Ganon's throat out then and there. Of course, he had to pretend he was still loyal to his _master_. "I checked for any boss monsters who might have survived their battle with Link as you instructed, but unfortunately it seems as though all of them have been killed and disposed of."

"Even Helmaroc?" Ganondorf questioned. "He was our strongest, I was certain he would have survived."

"No, my Lord," Shadow said regretfully. "Actually, he _was _alive when I came to check for him atop Death Mountain. It was all rather odd, the series of events that occurred next, and I'm sure you will be very interested in what I've got to say." Looking at Ganon, who made a gesture for him to carry on speaking, Shadow continued with his tale.

He recounted how he had reached the top of the mountain to speak with Helmaroc when Vaati appeared with a girl. He mentioned that the three had a brief exchange and then fought to the death, Vaati managing to defeat Helmaroc.

By the end of Shadow's explanation, Ganon was practically speechless. "How is that possible?" He demanded, confusing and anger evident in his words. "I thought we had gotten rid of Vaati already! I didn't 'team up' with him and send him to battle Link first because I wanted him to _win_ and survive! There's only room for one villain, and that's me! I thought Link had defeated Vaati, after which I went into hiding, so why has he returned?"

"I was curious as to why that was as well," Shadow began. "You see, the reason I took so long in returning is because I stayed behind to spy on Vaati and the girl he was fighting alongside. By sticking around and listening to the conversation they had with each other in the morning, I learned some things that answer your questions."

"Apparently, Vaati was defeated by Link and given a chance at redemption. He told the girl he was with that the goddesses themselves promised to forgive him for his crimes if he in turn promised to complete three specific tasks. It sounded like defeating Helmaroc was the first of these tasks, and it seems to me as though he no longer wants to be evil but has had a change of heart and now wishes to become _good_."

"Why, we can't let that happen," Ganon said, still trying to get over the initial shock of his newfound knowledge. "One hero is bad enough, and knowing Vaati he won't want to stop at forgiveness and becoming a normal person. No, he always goes over the top in all that he does, so if he wants to be good I'm certain he'll stop at nothing short of heroic. Link is difficult enough to deal with, so imagine what would happen if we had to start dealing with Vaati as well."

"You're right, my Lord," Shadow said in reply. "So what do you think we should we do about it?"

"I want you to go do some more snooping around," Ganon stated. "Find out what his second task will be, because if we find out what it is maybe we could add to its difficulty somehow." He finished with a thoughtful look on his face, as though contemplating something.

"If Vaati is truly working to become good now, then that means he no longer has any interest in being villainous and evil, therefore he is not on our side anymore. Soon we will have to make it clear to him that if he's not with us, he's against us," Ganon said severely. "If that's the case and the pest still wants to be good, he must be eliminated."

"Sorry to interrupt, my Lord, but isn't that a bit harsh? I mean, he isn't like Link and he used to be one of us..." Shadow trailed off, practically melting under Ganondorf's fiery gaze.

"That doesn't matter! Shadow, if you're going to turn soft on me you may as well get out of my face," Ganon replied angrily. Calming down a bit, he added, "he has the potential to become a threat, and I don't want another somewhat strong enemy. If you're so worried about this, why don't you just go back to work under him as your master, hmm?"

"I can't do that," Shadow replied sullenly, wishing he could walk out right then and there on Ganon. In his mind, even teaming up with Vaati would be better than working under the ruthless Ganon.

Ganon sighed. "I don't understand why you can't. Surely since Vaati created you with his dark magic you've still got some loyalty to him, right? So why do you choose to work under me?"

"I didn't choose this," Shadow said flatly. "When I was first created, I had a magical bond placed on me to ensure my loyalty to Vaati, making me his servant. When Vaati teamed up with you, he changed the bond he placed on me so that I would be equally loyal to both him and you. When he was defeated, the magic bond tying me to him broke, leaving me as solely your servant. Even though Vaati has returned, the bond between him and I can't and won't ever mend, leaving me completely as your servant, and yours alone."

"Oh, I see," Ganon said. "Thanks for explaining that to me, but does that mean you'll never be free?"

"Yes," Shadow said, though he added a few more words under his breath so Ganon couldn't hear. "I'm a servant for life until you die, Ganon. Then I'll be free..."

"Get going then," Ganon snapped suddenly, impatient as always. "Find out more information and report back to me as soon as you figure out what the second task is going to be."

"Yes, Lord Ganon," Shadow said. With that he turned away silently and left the dungeon, preoccupied with new, wishful thoughts of an impossible freedom.

xxxxx

"So now that we've completed out first task, what is to be our second?"

Vaati and Lexi were climbing down the side of Death Mountain together, in what had been peaceful, silent moments before Lexi asked a question.

"I don't know," Vaati replied irritably. "The goddesses have to come tell me what the next task is, and hopefully they tell me sooner then later. Last time they made quite the point of arriving late."

"Wait, so you're saying that the goddesses are actually going to come down and talk to us!?" Lexi squealed excitedly. "Oh my goodness! I'll get to meet them for real? This is amazing, I can't belie-"

"I never said that you would get to meet them," Vaati cut in. "It's only a possibility. They might not appear to you."

"Oh," Lexi said, looking downcast for only a moment until her usual happy attitude took over again. "Well, at least I have a chance of meeting them! A possibility is better then nothing!"

At this Vaati said nothing, amazed at how she always kept up her chipper attitude. These thoughts brought on the curiosity as to why she would be spending time helping him of all people... _Oh well, it's better not to question the few good things that appear in my life _Vaati thought miserably.

"Lexi, I didn't ask this earlier because I wasn't sure if you would be comfortable with my magic," Vaati started. "But I'm not interested in climbing down this entire mountain, it's going to take hours! Would you allow me to bring the two of us to the base of the mountain with magic?"

"I'm not scared of your magic, don't worry," Lexi said. "I trust you now. But all I'm wondering is how, exactly, do you plan on getting us down there?" She looked down the slope nervously, calculating all the ways in her head she could die with one wrong step down the mountain path.

"Well, I don't have the power of the wind for nothing," Vaati replied haughtily. "I would create a cyclone to sweep around us and carry us up into the air and down to the ground. I've done it a few times before, though I usually teleport places."

"Why can't we just teleport?" Lexi questioned. "It sounds... I don't know, safer?" She finished, trying unsuccessfully to hide how scared she was.

"_I_ would be able to teleport down without problem, but it's a long distance and I can't teleport the two of us that far away. It's one of those things that takes up too much of my power."

"Alright," Lexi said, pretending to put on a brave face. "Cyclone it is!"

Smiling, Vaati raised his arms and summoned strong gusts of wind from every side of him. Lexi couldn't help but notice how free Vaati looked when he was using his magic, and how uncharacteristically happy he seemed. It was as though he transformed into a whole different person entirely, smiling and full of joy.

It was true, for when Vaati used his magic he felt as though it was the one thing he truly understood. The calming breezes or the strong gusts of air were what made him something special, and he loved the feeling of supremacy that came along with it.

As the blowing wind grew stronger, Lexi felt her feet lift off the ground as her whole body gracefully floated upwards into the sky above. She had to admit, it was quite the extraordinary sensation.

Together Lexi and Vaati flew gently down the mountain, and in minutes they had reached the bottom. During the entire flight down, Lexi was in complete awe and had to stifle her disappointment when the time came for her to land on solid ground again.

"Now, you can't say that wasn't amazing," Vaati said, pride evident in his tone of voice. Lexi could tell how proud Vaati was of further demonstrating his powers to her, and decided to play along and say what he wanted to hear.

"It was truly breathtaking," she replied honestly. "I've never experienced anything like it before... What's that?" Lexi broke off, looking up at the sky.

Vaati followed her line of sight and inwardly groaned when he saw what had caught her attention. High in the deep blue sky, coming down through the clouds, were three glowing orbs colored red, blue, and green. The goddesses were here.

"My, what do you think those are?" Lexi asked curiously. "I've never seen anything like that in all of Hyrule!"

"Oh, I think we'll find out pretty soon," Vaati replied tersely. _Damn the goddesses and their impeccable timing_ he thought, completely uninterested in talking to them at that moment. He took back what he had said earlier about wanting them to arrive quickly, for their mere presence irked him. Apart of him wished that he'd never have to see them again.

Astonished, Lexi watched with wide eyes as the glowing orbs floated down in front of the two people. Whereas Lexi couldn't take her eyes off the glowing, magical orbs, Vaati was looking around in complete disinterest, feigning boredom.

Soon the goddess orbs had floated down to the surface and they transformed into their gorgeous Hylian forms, leaving Lexi standing there in complete and utter shock at the sight before her.

"Greetings Vaati, Lexi," Nayru spoke, nodding to each of them in turn. "Why Lexi, I do not believe we have been fully aquatinted yet. Allow me to introduce ourselves to you. I am Nayru, this is Din," she gestured to the woman dressed in red to her left. "And this is Farore," she said, looking at the woman wearing green to her right.

"Oh my," Lexi breathed in awe, inclining her head out of respect. "You're the goddesses."

* * *

**Now Lexi gets to meet the goddesses! That should be pretty fun for her, and next chapter we'll find out what the second task is :) Now, time to respond to reviews!**

**Legendoffun ~ **Thank you so much, I'm very glad to know you liked it! Yeah, they did tell quite a bit about him (though not much of his painful Minish past yet, I'm hoping to go into more detail about how horrible that was sometime...) XD

**Melkor'sOnlyLieutenant ~ **Yes, she finally knows! Haha yes, she's way too nice! It's good for Vaat I to be around someone who is positive all the time, maybe it'll teach him a thing or two about kindness ^.^ Did you get your fill of Shadow Link? He'll be pretty important later, I just couldn't resist including him! He was so awesome in the mangas!

**purplepanic ~ **She is, I'd say she's the nicest person in all of Hyrule! Oh yes, he was _very _surprised_. _He expected her to be scared, to hate him, or to run away in terror, but she just accepted it! Thank you so much! Yes, I'm going to keep the electric chus as an inside joke for awhile :)

**Zetra Shink ~ **I thought that was funny too, Vaati isn't one who is used to receiving kindness from others, so Lexi's actions towards him come as quite of a shock. He doesn't know how to react to her kindness, so he pretends it's annoying (though sometimes I think he actually likes it) ^.^ Haha I think if she were to hug him that would be a step too far, but his reaction would surely be unforgettable! I should remember that, I might put a scene like that in a later chapter just for fun XP

**The Lone Cheesecake ~ **Haha no problem, I'm just glad you're reading my story and that you enjoy it! Thank you so much, and I can't wait for your long review :D


	15. Testing Wisdom

**Chapter 15 is up! Do you know what that means? We are officially at the halfway mark of this story! Yay! Thanks to everyone for the unending support :) Please, enjoy this chapter!**

* * *

The five figures standing at the base of Death Mountain were quite the sight to behold. There were the three legendary goddesses, the infamous sorcerer of winds, and princess Zelda's personal royal guard, all talking in deep conversation.

Smiling at Lexi's starstruck facial expression, Nayru spoke to the girl gently. "Yes, my dear, we are the three goddesses of legend. We watch over Hyrule as guardians in our own right, doing our best to keep peace in this fair land and prevent disaster."

Lexi closed her eyes for a moment and gave her head a slight shake. When she opened them again, there was a disbelieving glint in her eyes. "How... How is this possible?" She stuttered, still awed to be in the presence of such powerful beings.

"Um, can we cut to the chase?" Vaati asked with obvious irritation, giving Lexi a pointed look about supressing her wonder in the process. "I'm going to be clear with you and let you know right now that I hate talking to you, so the less time we spend discussing things the better. I'm not in the mood right now, and you making me kill my _friend _just yesterday hasn't helped things."

"Vaati!" Lexi gasped, shocked that he was speaking to the goddesses with such disrespect and unkindness. "You can't talk to the goddesses that way!"

"Who are you, my master?" He scoffed, sniffing in disdain at the very though of Lexi having any control over him. "I can talk to them any way I want to, thank you very much."

"But they're the goddesses! They're sacred, and-" Lexi was cut off by a shushing gesture from Farore.

"It's quite alright, my dear," she said nicely to Lexi with a smile. "We are all rather used to Vaati and his interesting behaviors."

"Whatever," Vaati said, rolling his gleaming ruby red eyes. He was losing patience quickly, and the goddesses were starting to notice.

"Before we start to explain your second task," Din began. "We wish to congratulate you on what a spectacular fight you out up against that bird. You impressed us, and to leave us impressed is no easy feat."

"Yes, I tend to have that effect on people," Vaati said with utmost arrogance. "But," he added with a more serious tone. "_That bird_ was my friend, and I think it was completely unnecessary that out of all the monsters I could have faced you had to make it Helmaroc!"

"We know it was hard for you," Nayru said gently, sorrow and regret filling her eyes. "Yet we need to make these challenges as difficult as possible for you, while still teaching you a lesson at the same time. It wouldn't have been the same if you only had to face a mere physical threat, now would it?" She asked him the question rhetorically with a tilt of her head. "It was astounding that you were able to fight him though, which is what left us so impressed."

Vaati harrumphed, crossing his arms over his chest and looking away. "It's done with," he said, his voice getting caught in his throat. For a few short moments he stared off into space, a sad look in his eyes that broke the hearts of the goddesses to have to see.

Lexi, being the caring individual she was, let her natural desire to console take over and reached out a hand to put on Vaati's shoulder without thinking about how he'd react. Instinctively, Vaati flinched away and fixated his eyes on Lexi in a deadly glare. "I don't need your pity," he spoke in a dangerous tone.

"Um, I'm not pitying you, I'm trying to make you feel better," Lexi explained her actions as though it was the most obvious thing in the world. With an annoyingly happy outer demeanour she added, "gosh, you don't have to be so _rude _all the time!"

Choosing to ignore Lexi for now, Vaati turned back to face Nayru. "Now, will you kindly tell me what the second task is," he deadpanned, making it more of a command than a request.

Not wishing to anger Vaati any more than necessary, Nayru decided to oblige. "Alright sorcerer," she said, looking Vaati straight in the eye. "Your second task is the task of wisdom. Now before I elaborate further, what is the definition of wisdom?"

"Wisdom is the quality of having knowledge, experience, and good judgement," Vaati recited abruptly. After he said the words he ducked his head with an uncharacteristic bashfulness about him as though he was embarrassed to have known the definition.

_Why does he look so shy all of a sudden? _Lexi wondered. _Maybe he was teased in school for being too smart or something? _She dismissed the thought without thinking anymore on it, not knowing how close to the truth she really was.

"You are exactly right," Nayru complimented. "Wisdom is about so much more than mere intellect, for anyone can memorize facts and say they have smarts. As a whole, wisdom is about experience as well, thus being what I have based the task upon."

"To complete my task of wisdom, you will need to go to an old temple that resides on the other side of Hyrule. There, you will find a room with a closed door on the opposite side and a table in the center. On the table will be a difficult question written on a sheet of paper. You will answer the question aloud, and if you make the correct answer the closed door will open leading to the next room, holding the next question."

"If you make your way through the whole temple by answering all the questions correctly, you will have passed the task. Beware though, for if you fail to answer even one of the questions you will have failed the task. I believe you know what happens if you fail the task," Nayru ended her spiel ominously, waiting for Vaati's reaction.

"Yes, I know what will happen in the slight chance of me failing, but I've got a few questions," Vaati said pompously. "Firstly, what are the wisdom questions going to be about?"

"I can't say," Nayru replied apologetically. "The only hint I can give you is this; reflect on your past and your race of origin, for that is where most answers lay."

"My race of... No..." Vaati stopped speaking suddenly, hating what he was hearing. The bloody questions he'd have to answer were going to be about the _Minish_!? They must be about the Minish! What else could 'race of origin' mean?

Vaati shuddered at the thought of remembering his memories of the traumatic life he once lived as a Minish. The abandonment, uncaring orphanage, loneliness, teasing from bullies, slavery under Ezlo, and the numerous taunts and beatings he received daily during his childhood... The mere thought was too much to take. Even if the questions weren't directly related to his childhood, anything related to the Minish race always brought the horrible memories back into his mind.

"You can do it," Farore encouraged. "Have faith in yourself."

"Of course I can do it," Vaati snapped, hiding his discomfort and unease. "Where am I supposed to find this stupid old temple anyways?"

With a sly smile, Din handed Vaati a map. "Take this, it will lead you right to the entrance of the temple."

With barely a second glance at the map, Vaati took it roughly and immediately handed it off to Lexi, who started looking over it right away. If Vaati had been paying more attention, he would have noticed Lexi's look of confusion as she tried to decipher the illegible map.

"With that, we must be going," Nayru concluded. "Lexi, it was a pleasure to meet you." Upon hearing this, Lexi looked at Nayru and smiled as she replied, "the pleasure was all mine! I still can't believe I actually got to meet you three, it's been such an amazing experience."

"I'm glad to hear that. Oh, and Vaati, we wish you the best of luck in completing the challenges ahead," Nayru said to Vaati, after nodding her head at Lexi in acknowledgement.

"Luck?" He scoffed, rolling his eyes. "I don't need _luck_, if you honestly think I need that then you are sadly mistaken. I can handle myself fine on my own, thanks."

Laughing softly, Lexi looked over at Vaati. "You can handle yourself on your own, huh?" She asked, supressing a giggle. "So you're saying that you would have been fine if I hadn't stepped in to help you with those elect-"

"_Don't even go there_," Vaati growled, abruptly cutting off Lexi mid-sentence. He had a good idea of what she had been referring to, and noticing the goddesses suppressing laughter themselves, he could guess that they knew what she had been about to say as well.

"Then don't say you can handle yourself on your own," Lexi retorted smugly, a smile playing on her lips.

"Whatever," Vaati muttered darkly. "The whole lot of you are just so difficult to be around, I can barely being in the presence of such foolish _imbeciles_." Upon hearing this remark, the goddesses exchanged amused glances.

"Alright, well, I believe it is about time we were on our way," Din said, shooting a glance at the map in Lexi's grasp. "Vaati, have fun with that map, okay?" With these final parting words, Din transformed back into a glowing red orb and began floating back up into the sky. After giving each other a bemused look Nayru and Farore did the same without another word, before either Vaati or Lexi could ask them what Din had meant by her odd remark.

"What was that about?" Vaati grumbled, sounding more annoyed than curious. "Give me that," he said to Lexi, unceremoniously snatching the map from her hold. Looking it over, his brows furrowed in confusion and his expression slowly changed from one of questioning to anger. "What in Din's name is this supposed to be!?" He raged, almost tearing the map in two.

"Calm down," Lexi said, gently prying the map from Vaati's grasp. As she looked over the map again, she sighed at just how utterly useless it was. None of the words on the map were written in Hylian, but in another foreign language. There were strange markings everywhere, and nothing about it was recognizable. If the goddesses hadn't said it was a map of Hyrule, Lexi would have never guessed it to be.

"Now what are we supposed to do with this worthless piece of paper?" Vaati snarled, a dangerous glint in his eye. He was shaking his head in disbelief, trying to work out a way to read the map. "Do you know of anyone who can decipher old maps? Because I've got no clue about what to do with this. I'd honestly prefer to burn and be rid of it."

"We can't burn it," Lexi said with an air of disbelief. "Actually, I have heard of someone who would be of use to us. I heard about this fellow from none other than Link, who told some of us at the castle about it when he was recounting tales of his adventure! I don't think you're going to like it though, if the horrific tales Link told me about involving this guy are true..."

"Oh, spit it out already," Vaati said impatiently. "Whoever you're talking about, he can't be any worse than _me_."

"He was said to have been worse alright, just in a positively creepy way." Lexi shuddered, remembering the tale Link had recounted about his meeting with _him_...

"What are you even talking about? Someone managed to creep out Link? How did they even do that?"

"All in due time," Lexi said. "I don't want to tell you who it is right now, because I'm afraid you'll back out last minute once you hear who it is. I promise, I wouldn't take you to him if I had any other choice, but he's the only person I can think of who will help us decipher maps. Just make sure you've got a bunch of rupees handy, cause he's gonna charge a pretty high fee for his services, if I remember what Link said correctly."

"I don't know who or what you're talking about, but I seriously doubt I'd get frightened of this guy," Vaati said, narrowing his eyes as he looked at Lexi with disdain.

"We'll see soon enough," Lexi sighed. "Come on, I think I know where he'll be at. It's the place in Hyrlue us guards are always told to avoid, after all." She started walking towards her new destination after gesturing at Vaati to follow her. After a second of hesitation, he swiftly followed suit, and didn't hear Lexi as she shook her head and muttered a couple words to herself.

"I can't believe I'm going to take Vaati to see _Tingle _of all people."

* * *

***gasp* Not Tingle! Oh no... Haha that should be fun to write XD I'm looking forward to that one! Just to let you know, I've got exams next week so I'm going to be busy. I'll try to get another chapter out as fast as I can, but I'm just warning you now that it might take a bit longer than usual. Sorry about that!**

**Melkor'sOnlyLieutenant ~ **I know, yay for Shadow Link! Ah yes, him receiving freedom would be nice, wouldn't it? (Although I'm not usually one for happy endings...) I guess we'll have to wait to see what will happen to our dear Shadow ;) As for not killing him off, well, I make no promises. Again, you'll just have to wait and see! :D I must say I'm on Vaati's side too, those goddesses can be damn annoying sometimes. Especially after this chapter, it took all the self control he had not to give the goddesses an outrageous outburst that would result in him having to apologize XP

**Legendoffun ~ **You're welcome, and thank _you_ so much as well! I'm also very glad I was able to update, for as I explaones in the authors note above, I might not have much of a chance to do so next week due to exams. Haha that's so nice to kthat you check constantly for updates! That makes me so happy :)**  
**

**purplepanic ~ **Thank you so much! I'm glad you liked it :D That part with the goddesses was a nice little cliffhanger, wasn't it? Your prediction was spot on, as you could tell Lexi was awestruck and Vaati just hated every second of it XP

**Zetra Shink ~ **Haha yup! Thank you so much! I'm glad Ganon's in it as well - it adds to the antagonistic side of the story, and gladly found out it was much to your and my other readers delight. Oh yes, Shadow Link will have quite the major part to play closer to the end, just you wait!

**The Lone Cheesecake ~** Yay, the much anticipated long review! Thank you for all the positive feedback! Your words are too kind :) Wow, you really get excited whenever there's a new chapter? I am so happy to hear that! Haha, whatever I'm doing i'll try my best to keep it up! Also, you've got no idea how relieved I am to hear that my writing either improves or consistantly stays at the same high level, and especially that my portrayal of the characters is done right! I know i've probably said this before, but I can't stand to read a story where Vaati is too OCC, which is I why I try to keep him in character all the time. Whenever I edit, my main focus after spelling and grammar is dealt with is looking over to see if how I have written Vaati is always in character. I love writing Lexi, building her character is always such fun! Thank you so much, and I'll try to keep it up! :D

**Also, I'd like to finally thank Regallo, Mage Vaati, and YoungAndOutstandingIndiviual (you know who you are, you rainbow colored unicorn XP) for leaving reviews for previous chapters, as well as Leslie Nicole for all the support she's given me, always urging me to keep wrting and just being a fantastic friend. Thank you all!**


	16. Painfully Annoying

**Time for the long awaited, much dreaded Tingle chapter! It's super long and will be positively creepy and funny for your reading pleasure :) Its taken so long to post because it's my longest chapter yet at over 4500 words, and I hope you enjoy! **

* * *

"Lexi, honestly, _where are we going_?"

The young woman with bright violet eyes looked over at Vaati, who was glaring at her with as much annoyance as he could muster, while speaking to her rudely. "We've been walking for well over an hour already, and we haven't even reached this person we're supposed to see about that damned goddess-forsaken map yet!"

Smiling to herself, Lexi thought about how Vaati's bad attitude would probably never change. "We're almost there, I promise," she vowed. "I can't tell you where we are going yet, because if I do you might clue in as to who we're going to be seeing and..." She trailed off nervously, hoping that Vaati wouldn't be _too _mad when he found out who she was taking him to see.

"Lexi, I demand that you tell me who we're going to see. Right. Now." He growled angrily, and she could tell that he was done with being uninformed.

"Fine," she sighed, giving into his rather demanding request. "Just don't get too mad when you find out who it is, okay?" She asked him lightly, hoping that he wouldn't explode with anger at her or worse, leave her and make her face Tingle all by herself. She shuddered at the thought of going anywhere near that creep without Vaati around, for he would surely be able to handle himself around the middle aged, fairy obsessed man... Right?

"I make no promises," Vaati said, narrowing his eyes. "Now please, just spit it out already. Who is it?"

Taking a deep breath, she replied, "I'm taking you to see Tingle. I'm sorry, I know he's a creeper but he's the only person I know of who can translate maps! Oh please don't kill me, or worse, leave me to see him by myself. You wouldn't be that cruel-"

"Woah, slow down," Vaati cut in. "So, we're going to see a fellow by the name of Tingle, you say?"

Lexi nodded her head, waiting anxiously for the unhappy response that was sure to come. What Vaati said next came as quite a shock to her.

"I've never heard of Tingle before, what ever could be so bad about him?" Vaati asked with honest curiosity, tilting his head slightly.

"Wait, so you're telling me you've never heard of Tingle before!?" Lexi asked with disbelief. "How is that possible? Everyone in Hyrule has heard of _Tingle_."

"No my dear, I've actually never heard of him before, so if you would please enlighten me as to who he is that would be _much_ appreciated."

Still not able to believe that he had never heard about Tingle before, Lexi started explaining about the weird fairy man to Vaati, shivers running down her spine as she began to describe in full detail the extent of his creepiness.

"Tingle is... Odd, to say in the least. He's this middle-aged guy who has an obsession with faries, he's a total moocher when it comes to getting rupees and charges for everything, and not to mention he wears this disgusting, skin tight green leotard. He even _looks_ creepy." Lexi finished with a deep shudder, shaking her head to clear the image of Tingle that had just popped into her mind.

"Well, I must admit that I have to agree with you on the creepy leotard thing, that sounds like a bit much," Vaati sniffed, wondering who in their right mind would choose to wear a tight fitting green leotard by choice. Snickering to himself, he thought with a sly smile, _heh, on second thought I wouldn't put it past Link to wear something like that..._

"But, I've learned not to judge a book by its cover, and I know firsthand how bad it feels to be judged solely by ones outward appearance." Vaati trailed off as his mind flashed into the territory of unwanted, but never forgotten, memories. The ones which had been engraved into his mind for thousands of years, the ones he highly doubted he would ever forget.

...

_The young Minish Vaati walked down the dirt path towards school for the first time ever. It was his very first day of school, and he was extremely excited not only to learn, but to meet other Minish youth and hopefully make some new friends. Yet when he reached the school grounds, he was in for a nasty surprise and his hopes of finding a friendship were immediately crushed to pieces._

_"Hey, look at that kid! Is he new? I've never seen him before!"_

_"I think so, but look at him, if you can even call that a boy!"_

_"I'm honestly not sure of the gender, I mean, his hair is so long, just like a girls!"_

_"Oh, and his hair and skin are purple! That's such an unnatural color for a skin tone to be."_

_"Eek! His eyes are red! He must be... A monster!"_

_"Yuck, don't let him come near me!"_

_"Run away, or else you might become a monster too, just like him!"_

_All the children ran away, whispering to each other rude comments about Vaati's different looks, while the poor Minish child was left standing alone with tears welling up in his eyes, wondering what in Din's name was wrong with him._

...

"Vaati...? Are you okay...?"

Vaati snapped back into reality when he heard Lexi's worried voice. "Of course I'm okay," Vaati snapped back with more force than necessary, trying to blink away the moisture that had pooled at the corners of his eyes. "Why wouldn't I be?"

Lexi reached a tentative hand up to brush away a single tear that had rolled down his cheek, and he froze at her touch, trying to vainly hide the emotional pain he was in. "You're crying," Lexi spoke softly, looking up into his watery ruby eyes. "It's fine to cry, you know, everyone does it sometimes."

"It's nothing but a sign of weakness," Vaati whispered hoarsely. Angry at himself for acting so pitiful, Vaati lowered his gaze and wiped away the remaining tears with his sleeve. "I'm not bloody _weak_... I can't be."

"You aren't weak," Lexi stated earnestly. "You're the opposite of weak, so don't worry about that." She gave him a small smile. "Do you want to talk about it...?"

"No," Vaati muttered, embarrassed to be seen in such a demoting state. He absolutely hated himself for appearing weak in front of Lexi.

"Alright," Lexi said. "So, back on the subject of Tingle, he's not judged based only on his appearance at all. It's his actions, and soon you'll see for yourself. He was said to have creeped out even the legendary hero, for goodness sakes!"

Thankful that Lexi was changing the subject even if it was just to save his pride, Vaati blinked away the last of his tears and met her warm gaze. "He frightened Link, you say?" Vaati asked, more to himself than anyone else. "He does seem like quite the character."

"Oh, he is, or so I've been told," Lexi said, suppressing yet another shiver. "Just you wait."

The pair made their way along Hyrule choosing not to bring up Vaati's emotional breakdown again, with Lexi always keeping her eyes on the sky. After about another half hour of fruitless travels, Lexi took a sudden intake of breath, her entire body tensing. "There he is," Lexi said, pointing to a floating red balloon a ways away. "He's attatched to that balloon, see?"

Narrowing his eyes, Vaati followed Lexi's trail of vision and spotted the red balloon as well. "Okay," he said. "Now we just have to either get up there ourselves or bring him down here. Which do you prefer? Because I can accomplish any of the two quite easily."

"Could we bring him down to us?" Lexi asked. "That way, if we want to escape for whatever reason we can do so right away. If we go up to him and get all holed up near that balloon of his, who knows when we'd be able to leave..."

"Okay, just leave it to me then," Vaati said proudly, looking forward to flaunting his powers around yet again. "I'll have the air push in gusts downwards onto the balloon, sending it to the ground, and I can keep it there for however long we please."

"Wonderful," Lexi replied. "If things go as planned, you shouldn't have to keep it there for long, but who knows how long it'll take to bargain with a person like Tingle."

As they neared the bright red balloon floating high in the sky, Vaati noticed that it wasn't a small air balloon like he had originally thought, but saw that it was in fact just a normal balloon about ten feet tall with a man attached to it. He matched the description Lexi had given him earlier about Tingle's appearance and saw that it was the same person she had so perfectly described.

He was a small, middle aged man wearing a hideous tight fitting green leotard, and from the distance Vaati swore he heard the man shouting something that sounded like "Tingle Kooloo-Limpah!"

Raising his hands, Vaati brought the wind down upon the balloon as he felt a magical energy rush to his fingertips. Directing the balloon in it's graceful descent, Vaati brought Tingle towards him and Lexi at a diagonal path in the sky, and didn't stop pushing the wind down upon the balloon until it was on the ground a few feet away.

Looking dazed and confused, Tingle detached himself from his balloon and glanced around. His eyes widened as he spotted Vaati and Lexi, and he rushed towards the pair with great joy, practically skipping in unhidden glee. Lexi automatically took a step backward as the little man neared her.

"Oh my, oh my!" Tingle exclaimed happily. "Tingle has visitors, guests at long last! For you see, Tingle hasn't had a guest in many a decade, and has missed the presence of others so. Tingle is very glad to meet you two! To what does Tingle owe the pleasure?"

"Um," Vaati began, unsure of himself for once. "We heard you knew about maps, and we want you to decipher one for us."

"Does Tingle hear you correctly?" Tingle asked with joy. "A map, you say? Why, this is the best turn of events through out my whole boring day! Tingle was just minding his own business, floating up in the sky and looking for fairies, all while chanting my magical spell that is supposed to turn me _into_ a fairy! Tingle Kooloo-Limpah!" Tingle suddenly shouted, making Vaati and Lexi jump back a foot with a start, exchanging looks of growing concern.

Ignoring Vaati and Lexi's obvious discomfort, Tingle continued talking. "For you see, it is Tingle's greatest dream to become a magic fairy, such as Mr Fairy himself! If only Tingle was as great as Mr Fairy..." Tingle trailed off with a silly grin on his face and a wistful look in his eyes.

"Who's this 'Mr Fairy' person?" Lexi asked with curiosity.

"Mr Fairy is only Tingle's number one role model and the most amazing person ever! He is the only person who Tingle has ever met that is an actual fairy! He is so magical that Tingle must learn his ways, so he tries to find Mr Fairy every chance he gets! Only Mr Fairy has asked Tingle about deciphering maps before..." Tingle finished suspiciously, putting together the last things that had happened to him in his mind. The almost magic wind that pushed his balloon of of the sky, and these visitors who were asking about things only Mr Fairy had ever asked before... Could they be...?

Meanwhile, Vaati and Lexi had looked at each other upon Tingle's description of 'Mr Fairy' and were trying their best not to burst out laughing. It was obvious to them that Mr Fairy was none other than the esteemed Hero of Hyrule, Link. Who else would need help deciphering maps, and who else had ever spoken of meeting with Tingle before?

"Are you a fairy!?" Tingle asked Vaati, practically falling over from overwhelming excitement.

Caught off guard, Vaati cut his laughter short. "Wait, what?" Vaati asked with menace. "I'm not a stupid _fairy, _no, I'm the all powerful Sorcerer of Winds! Just who do you take me for!?"

"Sorcerer of Winds?" Tingle repeated in confusion. "Tingle has never heard of a 'Sorcerer of Winds' before, and Tingle would like to know what one is."

"Well," Vaati started haughtily. "I, the one and only Sorcerer of Winds, have amazing powers. I can manipulate the wind and air, with the ability to make it do whatever I please. There is none more powerful than I."

Tingle looked at Vaati with unmasked wonder and awe. "So you are a fairy! Not just a fairy, but the most powerful of all fairies! Even more powerful than Mr Fairy himself, Tingle guesses! This is amazing, Tingle must learn everything about becoming a fairy such as yourself!"

"Woah, I am _not _a freaking fairy," Vaati snarled, growing more impatient by the minute. "I told you already, and of you call me a fairy one more time, you will be exceedingly sorry that you ever met me."

"Tingle didn't mean to make her majestic fairyness mad-" Tingle began, but he had crossed the line and Vaati completely lost it.

"WHAT DID YOU JUST CALL ME!?" Vaati roared, unable to keep his calm any longer. "Did you just call me a _her_!?"

"Why yes, Tingle did, and what a pretty lady you do make, Tingle does think!"

"..."

"Vaati," Lexi cautioned. "He's only a weird little man who has absolutely no idea what he's talking about. Just leave it be, we can go look somewhere else for our map to be deciphered, lets just go now. Okay?"

Vaati took a deep breath, closing his eyes in an attempt to calm himself. He was slightly shaking from the effort it was taking to not go into a complete rage mode. When he spoke again, it was in a deadly calm tone. "How about we get this straight, shall we?" Vaati asked with mock sincerity, a deathly serious glint visible in his red eye. "I am a _guy,_ got that? You, on the other hand, are a mental weirdo who is completely getting on my nerves, and if you keep this up any longer, I promise that you'll regret having ever been born."

Tingle looked up at the angry mage towering over him, and spoke again with the same exuberant tone as before. "Alright, Tingle understands that you don't wish to be called female! Would you mind if Tingle called you Ms Fairy, though? Or would just 'Fairy' be okay since Tingle sees that you don't like to have your true gender spoken of?"

"My... True..." Vaati mumbled to himself, and Lexi closed her eyes at the reaction that was sure to come. She knew there would be no point in stopping it, so she decided to take a few steps backward and remove herself from the scene without another word.

"WHAT THE HECK IS WRONG WITH YOU!?" Vaati screamed, pure anger bubbling to the surface. "YOU INSOLENT &#£$% FOOL, I WILL MAKE YOU SORRY THAT YOU EVER DARED TO SPEAK TO ME WITH SUCH DISRESPECT!"

"Ooh, will Tingle see some magic?" Tingle asked happily right before he was blasted backwards with a force that would have killed any person. Using as much wind power as he could manage, Vaati had thrust the air forwards, knocking Tingle away like an old doll. Tingle landed on the ground a hundred or so feet away with a deafening thud.

"You didn't have to kill him!" Lexi exclaimed indignantly, but broke off as she noticed Tingle stand up again and run back towards them with as much enthusiasm as he had before.

"What a most wonderful display!" Tingle exclaimed with joy. "Tingle is most impressed, although Tingle wishes that he would not be used at the target next time."

Vaati, on the other hand, was at a complete loss for words. "How are you still alive? I did that with the intention of killing you, yet you come back perfectly unharmed without so much as a broken limb or even a mere scratch? It isn't possible!"

"I think this might be a good time to mention that Link told me Tingle is sorta invincible. He never dies, like, ever. Apparently he's been alive since the very first reincarnation of the hero, and lives through every era," Lexi stated with worry. "Maybe now would be a good time to go..."

"Tingle doesn't want you to go!" Tingle wailed. "Tingle wants new friends to stay with him, especially if one of the friends is a magical fairy who can teach him of her ways!" Vaati inwardly grimaced at being called a girl yet again, and it took everything in him not to explode on him for the second time, knowing full well that doing so would only leave Tingle more amazed by his powers.

"Damn you," Vaati muttered, beginning to back away slowly. "There's something seriously wrong with you, I'm getting this creepy vibe," he shuddered, unable to stand being around this man much longer.

"Tingle Kooloo-Limpah! Tingle Kooloo-Limpah!" Tingle exclaimed. "Please turn me into a fairy, Tingle wishes desperatley to learn of your magical ways!" He jumped forward and clung to Vaati, much to Vaati's extreme discomfort.

"Get off me, you imbecile," Vaati spat. Eyes wide, he shook Tingle off and took another ten paces backwards, watching in distress as Tingle followed him again.

"Tingle wants you to stay," Tingle pouted. "Tingle doesn't want you to leave, oh no, you must stay and teach Tingle everything about becoming a real fairy! Then all of Tingle's wildest dreams will come true!"

Again Tingle jumped and clung to Vaati with such force that it knocked the poor Hylian over. "Get off me!" Vaati demanded, growing more stressed and unsure of himself by the minute. He tried to unsuccessfully shove Tingle off, but it wouldn't work, and Tingle began pulling on Vaati with surprising force for such a small man as he tried to drag the mage along with him to his balloon.

"No, Tingle wants you to come, and Tingle will not let you go until you teach Tingle the ways of a fairy! For Tingle has always hoped for a fairy to come and transform Tingle into one, and now that will happen! Tingle is overjoyed, and Tingle will take good care of his new fairy friend!"

Now starting to panic, Vaati forcefully tried to pry Tingles grasp off of him, but it was no use. It seemed that Tingle had some magic powers of his own, as his iron grip seemed impossible to penetrate. Summoning a gust as powerful as he had minutes earlier, he sent it at Tingle, but it didn't have the same effect as it had before, barely managing to make Tingle sway from his stance. As a last-ditch attempt, Vaati sent a powerful energy ball at Tingle, but in just bounced off the slight fellow as he laughed and back into Vaati, leaving him with a magical shock and feeling drained and shaken. He was losing power, and he noticed in bleak dismay that Tingle was nearing that dreaded balloon of his.

"Tingle sees that _she _wants to escape," Tingle said, stressing the she as though he was mocking the trapped wind mage. "But Tingle is very good at resisting escapers, yes, Tingle is very good indeed! Tingle will not let his new friend leave until Tingle has learned the magic of fairies!"

Mouth agape and eyes wide, Vaati felt utter terror take over him. A bead of sweat rolled down his forehead, and he began shaking out of the creepiness of the situation. Tingle was right, he wouldn't be able to escape, not on his own. They were only a few feet away from the balloon now, and there was nothing he could do about it. Desperately he clawed Tingle away, kicking and sending all the wind magic he could at the fairy man, but it was no use.

Wait, there was nothing he could do about it alone, but Lexi could surely help right about now.

Vaati looked over at where Lexi was, even though he was still struggling against the tight hold Tingle had on his legs to drag him forwards, and noticed her digging in her bag for something. What in Din's name was that girl doing?

Lexi suddenly pulled out a handful of silver rupees and the goddesses map from her bag, and made her way over to Tingle. "Excuse me," Lexi said hesitantly to Tingle. "Before you leave, could you please decipher this map for me? I do hope this will be enough to pay for your services," Lexi said, catching the attention of the fairy obsessed man with the gleaming pile of rupees in her hands.

"Oh yes, Tingle thinks that will do quite nicely!" Tingle said with a wide smile, straining to count the number of rupees in her grasp.

"That's great," Lexi said, and putting all feelings of discomfort aside, she walked straight up to Tingle and offered him the rupees and the map. She held out the map for him to read, and he skimmed over it with experienced eyes. "Oh, Tingle can easily write instructions for you in Hylian telling you where this map is wanting you to go!" Tingle said. "But before Tingle writes that down for you, can you hold onto Tingle's fairy captive? Tingle must warn you, she is a feisty one!"

Vaati grimaced at what Tingle said, but then his eyes flashed in hope as he realized what Tingle was suggesting. If Lexi got the instructions for the map and then the two of them ran away, Vaati could warp them out of there and be done with this foul place once and for all. He wished he could warp away right now, but since Tingle was clinging onto him with no signs of release, Vaati would be stuck with Tingle wherever he warped to. He just needed Tingle to let go for a moment.

"Of course I will!" Lexi promised, pretending to sound happy to oblige. Gingerly, she put her hands on Vaati's legs in a light grasp to try and fool Tingle for the time being. It worked, for after Tingle observed the two for a moment, he nodded in satisfaction and turned away to begin deciphering the map.

After a minute of waiting in this awkward position, Vaati stretched out on the floor in an uncomfortable position, sore from being dragged moments ago across the gravely ground, and Lexi crouched down to hold lightly onto Vaati's outstretched legs, Tingle proudly handed Lexi the map and started counting his new haul of rupees with that patented creepy grin on his face.

"Hold on to me," Vaati whispered harshly, and he felt Lexi's grip on him tighten. Muttering a short incantation, Vaati magically teleported himself and Lexi to the other side of Hyrule where they wouldn't be bothered by Tingle any longer, just as Tingle was turning around to try and drag his 'new fairy friend' away yet again.

They landed in an empty field that looked increasingly similar to the field in which Vaati had first arrived. Pale and shaking, Vaati stood up from the ground and began self consciously brushing off his clothes. Lexi stood up as well, badly shaken but not as pale. It was obvious that Vaati had suffered the worst part of the Tingle torture, and though Lexi felt increasingly sorry for him as she saw how much the creep had scared him, she had to admit that she was glad Tingle hadn't tried to do anything weird to her as well.

"We are never going back there again. _Never_," Vaati said, eyes still wide from the horrendous shock of the unwanted experience, face even paler than normal. "I swear Lexi, if you ever have the audacity to put me through something like that again..."

"Sorry," she said, still shocked as well. "Yet something good did come out of this traumatic experience." She smiled, holding up the map. "Tingle deciphered it and wrote all the directions in Hylian, so we can read it now! Isn't that wonderful?"

With a harrumph Vaati unwillingly admitted, "well, at least it wasn't all for nothing, but goddesses be damned, if I ever see Tingle again I promise you that I will make him _pay_."

* * *

**Wow, that was really long, oops! Haha well, I hope everyone liked it! I know the beginning emotional part wasn't necessary, but when I wrote that I was really in the mood to write drama and angst, it wasn't originally part of the plot or anything at all. But yeah, lots of Tingle creepiness! **

**Mage Vaati ~ **Yay, you're all caught up! I'm so glad that you like it and are completely into the story :D Yup, I couldn't resist adding Tingle to the story for a fun chapter. Was it to your liking?

**Lord Sirivant ~** Haha sorry, I couldn't resist! I hope it wasn't too creepy for you XP

**Zetra Shink ~** Props to you for guessing it was Tingle before I said it was him officially! *gives you a cookie* ^~^ He was such the money moocher, almost as bad as Ravio from ALBW! (But not quite) Lol I did that too, got the cheats from online in Wind Waker ^.^ It was way easier than collecting the rupees and going to Tingle for the charts! Yup, it's halfway done! That just means the best parts are soon to come, yay! Thanks for the support!

**Legendoffun ~** You're welcome, and thank you for following this story! I am so glad you like it! I'm sad it's halfway done already, but just think, that means that the best parts are still yet to come! Haha yeah, I'm not going to start another story until I'm done with this one, don't you worry. I wouldn't be able to handle two going on at the same time when I can barely handle this one sometimes! Thank you so much for all the amazing support and encouragement :)

**Melkor'sOnlyLieutenant ~ **Lol I know, what I did was rather unnecessarily cruel of me, but I couldn't help it! He is a really freaky character though, and was surprisingly more difficult to write than I first expected. I hope I didn't give you too many nightmares! If I did, sorry! Nayru's task is a pretty difficult one, and thankfully my characterization of Vaati is sort of a book-smart one, so I'd think he would do pretty well with it. He's just honestly more worried about reliving his past, and you know how horrible I like to make those memories for him. I'd fail that task too though XP Thank you so much!

**purplepanic ~** I know, I always thought Vaati would have been bullied as a Minish, not to mention abused, teased, abandoned at birth, orphaned, uncared for and unloved, excluded, and so on. (I want to write a story about his Minish life once I'm done with Sealed Away, I've got some pretty dark and depressing ideas for it...) I loved that part too, and I'm glad you noticed it! :D Thank you! Haha yeah, Vaati didn't like Tingle one bit, as I'm sure you could tell.


	17. The Past

**Another long chapter! Sorry that it's taken so long to update, but I've had exams and stuff... But now it's all over! No more exams, yay! To celebrate, I've got another update for all my avid readers! Hope you like it, even though it's just a filler it's still pretty long. **

* * *

After reading over the map and it's directions to the temple, Vaati and Lexi sighed at how long the journey would take, for the temple they had to go to was practically on the other side of Hyrule.

"So we've got basically another day if travel ahead of us to reach this temple?" Vaati asked with a snappish attitude. "Damnit Lexi, this stupid journey is going to take _forever_, I mean, we've still got that final courage task after this one!"

"Yes, I know," Lexi sighed. "I thought you could maybe warp us there to save some time?" She finished hopefully, looking at Vaati with her big violet eyes.

"My dear, warping isn't as easy as it seems," Vaati replied snootily. "It not only takes up a huge amount of power, but it requires exact coordinates for the place that I am to travel to, so if I am even a foot off I could accidentally warp into a wall or something! Not to mention that I'd have to warp you along with me as well, which just takes up even more of my power. No, warping is only to be used in complete emergencies."

"But it seemed like you were okay when we warped away from Tingle," Lexi reminded him with an accusing glance. "Are you sure you just don't want to warp?"

"Of course not!" Vaati exclaimed indignantly. "I warped us away from Tingle because it was an emergency! That guy was a creeper, and we wouldn't have gotten out of there any other way! I wouldn't have done it if it wasn't absolutely necessary."

"Fine, I get it," Lexi said dejectedly. "But I'm just as bummed about walking that far as you are."

"Well, we had best be on our way then," Vaati snapped.

"But we haven't had a proper break since our battle with Helmaroc!" Lexi exclaimed. "Couldn't we just take a rest? It wouldn't hurt, would it?"

"I am rather tired," Vaati said, letting into Lexi's request. "Not to mention that Tingle experience took a lot out of me. Alright, we can rest for a little while."

"Yay!" Lexi cried happily. "I know just where we can stay, too!"

"Wait, what?" Vaati asked. "Stay? As in, overnight? Lexi, I thought you meant a half hour rest or something before we continue on with our travels, not an overnight stay! That'll waste too much time!"

"Oh, who said we were on a time limit?" Lexi asked, still in a good mood. "It's only one night, and think about how well rested and good you'll feel tomorrow when you've got to do that wisdom challenge? It sounds like its going to be tough, so why not recharge and be at your most ready before you do it?"

"No," Vaati said stubbornly. "Hey-"

Lexi cut him off abruptly by grabbing his arm and pulling him towards castle town. "Don't be so grumpy all the time," she said, smiling brightly. "You'll thank me later, I promise!"

"Huh, I seriously doubt that," Vaati said, yanking his arm free from her grasp. Annoyed, he realized that the only thing for him to do would be to follow Lexi to the town.

As they walked the short distance to castle town, Lexi chattered the whole way. "I'm taking you to see one of my close friends who runs an inn, I'm sure she'll have a room for each of us ready to go, not to mention that she is just the friendliest girl you ever did meet!"

"Friendlier then you, even?" Vaati asked sarcastically. "Oh, joy. I am _so _very excited to meet her. She sounds just like you, and Goddesses forbid I have to put up with two Lexi's when I can barely deal with one."

"Oh, you'll love her! Don't you worry," Lexi said. "Come on!" She hurried away, leaving Vaati with no choice but to follow in suit.

The two reached castle town and headed inside. Lexi held her head up proudly and smiled at everyone, waving to those she knew and practically shining with warm happiness. Vaati trailed behind her miserably with his head down and bangs covering his face, all the while keeping a lookout for Link and Princess Zelda. He wasn't interested in running into them at the moment.

Vaati grew more anxious the deeper into castle town they went. There were too many people about, and all so close together... It seemed as though the closer they came to the magnificent Hyrule castle itself, the more crowded the streets became. "Lexi," he said severely. "How much further is it until we reach the inn?"

"We're almost there," Lexi replied. "Why? Aren't you enjoying the scenery? It's so beautiful out today!"

"Hardly," Vaati muttered, and Lexi could tell that there was an edge to his voice. She wondered why he was acting so anxious all of a sudden.

After a few more minutes, the pair arrived in front of a nice little wooden building. The sign on the door read 'Aria's Inn', and Vaati guessed that this was the place Lexi had been talking about.

"We're here!" Lexi sang, opening the door and walking through with a spring in her step. "Oh, I haven't seen Aria in ages!"

"Aria is this friend of yours, I take it?" Vaati asked, following behind her into the building. He took a deep breath as he entered the spacious room, and let his surroundings sink in for a moment.

Gorgeous sunlight shone through the well washed windows, and wooden chairs and tables were situated around the room with pretty rugs and plain sofas to give the place a homey feel. Everything about the inn gave off a warmth, almost like the feeling Vaati got when he went home to his Palace of Winds after a stressful day out dealing with Link or other troubles.

At one side of the room there was a clean counter with a bell on the desk and a welcoming vase of flowers. Behind the counter was a shelf full of papers and room keys for checking in and out of the inn.

"Isn't it the sweetest place?" Lexi asked Vaati brightly. "My friend Aria takes pride in doing the best job she can in taking care of this inn, and she is great at it! Everyone always raves about this inn being the best one in town."

"Do they now?" Vaati replied while wishing he could make a sharp remark, but realizing that there wasn't a single bad thing he could find to say about this inn except that it was _too_ nice and welcoming, but he could hardly say that.

"Lexi, honey, is that you?"

Vaati looked up to see a young woman walking down the stairs, a smile on her face as she looked warmly at Lexi. This had to be Aria.

She was a petite woman who seemed to be only around twenty or so herself, with dark blonde hair pulled back into a loose, messy bun and shining hazel eyes. She wore a pale yellow dress that ended just above her knees and a light blue apron, and her cheeks had a natural blush. She was rather pretty, but in more of a cute and cheery way.

"Aria!" Lexi exclaimed, rushing up to greet her friend. "How have you been? I haven't seen you in ages!"

"I'm quite alright," Aria responded with just as much enthusiasm, though Vaati could tell that she was tired. It seemed that running the inn was a whole lot of work, and he couldn't see anyone else helping to run the inn alongside her. Sighing, he came to the conclusion that Aria ran the inn all by herself.

"It's only been about a week since we last saw each other," Aria continued, though it was evident that she was overjoyed to see her friend again. "All I've been doing is running the inn as usual. Business has been wonderful this past month, and ever since that monster Vaati got sealed away by Link, there have been more townsfolk and travelers coming to stay here than ever before!" Vaati couldn't help but flinch as Aria mentioned him as a monster, but refrained from making a bitter remark no matter how hard it was to do so.

"Oh, how wonderful," Lexi replied, shooting a glance I've at Vaati to see if he had heard her remark. Noticing his stony expression, Lexi hurried along to change the subject. "Have you seen Link or Zelda around recently?"

"No, not since the goddess festival. Why do you ask?" Aria asked curiously.

"It's just that, well, I've sorta been neglecting my new job as a royal guard recently..." Lexi trailed off, embarrassed. "But I've got a good reason for doing so! I was just wondering if anyone has come looking for me, that's all."

"My goodness," Aria said, worried. "Why ever have you been neglecting your job? I thought you said it was the most important thing to happen to you in your life so far! What about doing it for your dad...?"

"Yes, I know," Lexi sighed. Walking over to the nearest sofa, Lexi took a seat and motioned for Aria to do the same. "Come on," she said to her friend. "It's a pretty long story."

Aria walked over to the couch and sat beside Lexi, turning to face her attentively. From there on, Lexi explained about loosing her sword and going on a search for it, stumbling upon Vaati and helping him, and vaguely saying how she was helping him on a task of his own at the moment while making sure to leave out the parts about the goddesses, or Vaati being the evil wind sorcerer. Actually, she left out his name completely, just referring to him as 'a guy'.

"Wow, that sounds like quite the adventure," Aria said with evident awe in her voice. "But who exactly is this guy you've been helping?" Lowering her voice she added, "is he handsome? I am single, and if, you know..."

Giggling, Lexi replied, "haha, well I don't know, I mean, he's not exactly _my_ type." Out of the corner of her eye she looked over to see Vaati sitting on a nearby chair, stifling his own laughter. "See for yourself, he's right over there," she added, looking over at Vaati.

Aria immediately blushed a deep shade of crimson and lowered her head. "Well you could have told me that!" She hissed under her breath, completely mortified. Regaining her composure to the best of her abilities, she asked Lexi, "what's his name?"

"His name is... His name is..." Lexi stumbled over her words, unsure of what to say. She couldn't say his real name, it was known for infamous deeds and if Aria heard his name was Vaati, she would get highly suspicious.

"Valen," Vaati cut in, pretending not to notice the odd look Lexi shot him after he said his newly made up name. "My name is Valen." Aria looked at him and smiled, and Vaati inwardly gagged. She was almost as nice, if not nicer, then Lexi, and he was getting sick of being around nice people all the time. Sighing, he thought to himself about what a long night it would be.

"Well Valen, it is a pleasure to meet you," Aria greeted him warmly, holding out her hand for him to shake. He pretended not to have seen it, and instead began vainly straightening out his cape and smoothing out wrinkles.

"Yes, I'm sure," Vaati replied in an arrogant drawl. "Now, since you two have had your little reunion, would you be so kind as to give us the keys to our rooms?"

"Oh, silly me!" Aria laughed, getting up to go and grab the room keys. "Of course, here you go," she said as she handed out a room key to each Vaati and Lexi in turn. It's just down the hall, first two rooms on the left. Would you like me to show you where they are?"

"No, I think we can manage," Vaati responded snidely, getting up and walking over to the hallway in a few graceful strides. "Coming?" He asked Lexi, waiting for her to follow.

"Yes, just a moment," she said, and looked towards Aria. "How much do we owe you? I don't have many rupees on me at the moment, but I can pay some now and the rest later, if that's okay."

"Don't even think about paying me! What type of a friend would I be if I made you pay? It's free for you and your friend, so don't worry about anything," Aria responded. Before Lexi could make a single protest, Aria had led her over to the hallway and went back over to her desk with a cheerful smile.

"Thank you," Lexi called over her shoulder as she made her way down the hallway and to her room. Entering her room, she sighed in contentment as she took in the wooden desk and chair, small bedside table, and comfy looking bed. She was exhausted from the days travels, and even though it was still early night she couldn't wait to kick off her shoes and fall fast asleep.

Just as she was about to lay down on her bed, she heard a sharp rap at her door. Expecting it to be Aria, she got up and opened it, surprised to see Vaati standing at the doorway. Not bothering to make any type of greeting, he brushed past her and walked into her room.

He pulled out the chair at the desk, turned to face it towards Lexi who had gone over to sit at the edge of her bed with a bewildered expression on her face, and sat down. "What's up?" She asked with a tilt of her head.

"I'll just get straight to the point," Vaati responded. "Something has been bothering me ever since you spoke to Aria a few minutes ago, something specific you said involving your role as a palace guard and it relating to your dad. I don't know why, but I feel that it's important for me to know about this... You see, I've told you bits about my own past, more then I've told anyone else, but you never open up to me. I want to make sure that the feeling of _trust _is mutual between the two of us."

"So you want to know more about me?" Lexi asked, a small grin playing on her lips. "Do you know what that means? You consider me as a friend! Finally!"

"Hardly a friend, more like an, what's the word, accomplice. An ally, teammate, somewhat a confident, not a friend," Vaati sniffed, turning his head.

"Whatever you say," Lexi replied." "I know better though, and I know that you care for me somewhat. Enough to show you want to get to know me better, even if you're rather bad at going about it!"

"I've never exactly had any experience with this whole _friends_ buisness," Vaati muttered.

"So you do admit that we're friends!" Lexi exclaimed with glee.

"What? No... Ugh, that's not what I meant, I just-"

"Whatever, Vaati," Lexi laughed. "You're so funny when you're caught off guard! As for knowing more about me... Well, there's a lot more to me than you'd expect. It's not as thrilling as your past, but it's definitely something."

Shifting on the bed to get into a more comfortable posting, Lexi began her tale. "I guess I'll start off with a bit of my own past, then," she started uncertainly. "I was born and raised into a whole and loving family. My mom was always kind and looked after the house, working during the day as a maid at the palace. My dad worked as a royal guard, one of the best and most highly trained. He was good enough to be a captain, but declined the job when he found out I was going to he born, thinking the responsibility of being captain wouldn't leave him with enough time for family."

"It was always my dad's dream for me to follow in either his or mom's footsteps and find a job related to something involving the royal family. To him and my mother both, there was nothing more important in life than pledging utmost loyalty to Hyrule and it's royals. I became a palace guard to please him, because I knew that was what he wanted of me. He also had this dream... Have you ever heard of the Sheikah?" Lexi questioned suddenly, looking over at Vaati.

After seeing him nod in confirmation, she carried on with her story. "He always wondered what it would be like to restart the Sheikah, after they got discontinued all those years ago. Since the Shekiah are, like, the highest level of loyalty you could possibly have towards Hyrule royalty, he wanted more then anything for their group to be remade. That's why I have this tattoo," she said, showing Vaati the red eye tattoo she had on her shoulder. "It's the Sheikah symbol, I have it to keep my fathers memory alive, and to serve as a reminder of what I aspire to be."

"Your dad, is he...?" Vaati trailed off uncertainly, not wanting to take things too far. Even he had a sense of morality, however slight.

"Dead?" Lexi finished for him, sad but accepting. "Yeah, he is. He died defending Hyrule from an invasion of monsters a couple years ago, much before you rose to power in this era. My mom died too, just three months ago, from a fatal stroke. It still hurts," she said quietly, wiping a tear from her eye.

"I'm so sorry," Vaati murmured, not able to meet her eyes. He had never been good at dealing with emotions or consoling others, that was always Lexi's job. Now that she needed consolation, he didn't know how to go about it.

Lexi seemed to understand what he was thinking, and smiled. "It's fine, honestly. I'm used to it, I guess. Actually, I'm pretty tired now, should we go to sleep? If we're going to be dealing with the second task tomorrow, we need all the rest we can get!"

"Oh, of course," Vaati said, still unsure of what to say. Blast it, why couldn't he console her? Why did he even _want_ to console her? Was he turning... Soft? _No_, he thought shaking his head as he got up and made his way to the door. "G'night," he mumbled as he walked out the door, closing it behind him.

He walked across the hall to his own room and stopped short when he saw that the door to his room was ajar. Who could be in there? Had Aria forgotten to lock it when she cleaned up after the last guest had stayed in it? There was only one way to find out.

Vaati pulled open the door and went inside, eyes widening as he saw the dark figure sitting idly on his bed, seeming as though he had been waiting for him. "Shadow," Vaati growled, shocked and surprised but not wanting to show it. "What are you doing here?"

"Oh, I'm just passing by, thought I'd say hello," Shadow replied, smiling insincerely. "Didn't 'cha miss me? Haven't seen you in ages, _master_."

"Don't you _dare_ speak to me so disrespectfully, you good for nothing-"

"Woah, calm down! Heh, even Ganon talks to me with more kindness then you... Maybe I should appreciate working under him instead of you after all," Shadow looked into Vaati's piercing, angry red eyes with a smug smile on his face. "He is my new master, though I'd prefer to not have a master at all. Oh well, what can you do, huh?"

"You still work under Ganon!? What, how," Vaati broke off, obviously flustered At this sudden piece of news. "You're my servant! Not that stupid, insane gerudo's!"

"Not the last time I checked," Shadow spoke nonchalantly, making Vaati's temper rise dangerously high. "Anyways, that's not what I came to talk to you about. I actually came to give you a message from Ganon himself."

"What does he want from me? I'm done working with him," Vaati muttered, fists clenched and white under tense pressure.

"Hah, _with_ him? He was only using you, ya' know," Shadow laughed, but before Vaati could make another smart remark Shadow continued in a much more serious tone. "Honestly Vaati, you've got to listen to this and actually take heed of my words for once. Ganon knows about you trying to reform yourself and stuff, becoming good and all... Don't know what you're trying to accomplish there, you were meant to be evil in my opinion... But the point is, Ganon isn't happy. He's actually really, really mad. So mad he said that if you don't see sense and come back to the villains side, he would personally dispose of you."

"Dispose of _me_?" Vaati asked haughtily, dismissing the words as soon as they had come out of Shadow's mouth. "Just who does he think he is?"

"He's the King of Darkness! You know, the most powerful villain ever to live? As much as even I hate to admit it, Ganon is more powerful then the two of us combined! You wouldn't stand a chance against him if he wanted to kill you, and believe me, he was dead serious when he said he would stop at nothing to destroy you if you were actually going to become a hero. If you want to die, just keep up with this stupid redemption stuff, but if I were you, I'd stop before I was ahead. Just thought you ought to know."

With this, Shadow gave Vaati a final, parting look that seemed to say _don't say I didn't warn you_. Abruptly, Shadow snapped his fingers and vanished into a dark wisp of smoke, out the door and into the growing night, leaving Vaati standing alone in his room with growing thoughts of worry and concern.

* * *

**I just had to mention Shadow again, and I'm finding that I like writing his dialogue more then I thought I would! Now that I'm done with exams, I should have updates coming up at a faster rate. Also, I think next chapter I'll be able to thank my reviewers for 100 reviews! We're almost there! **

**Melkor'sOnlyLieutenant ~ **Haha yeah, sorry about the creepiness overload :D You just can't avoid max levels of creepiness when you're writing Tingle... Oh man, I've never thought that maybe he will!? Yeah, I'm sure that Vaati is traumatized for life now! Sorry Vaati, I didn't mean to! (Actually I did mean to, but that's besides the point :P) You know me, I just had to include some good angst! Oh good, I'm glad to know I wrote Tingle's character perfectly. He is one toughie to write!

**Zetra Shink ~ **I know, I can't help but pity Vaati either lol, although I'm sure he would absolutely hate us for it! Yes, even without his powers Tingle would probably still have thought of Vaati as a fairy based solely on his looks. Haha I guess the long hair does sorta put people off at first glance, huh? Well, Lexi's hair isn't exactly obviously multi coloured, it's more like brown with tons of natural highlights, so it sorta shimmers in the sun, but not in an obviously unnatural way. If you want to see a picture of Lexi, I've posted one on my deviant art account. My user name is SkyKly on there as well ^~^ Ooh, I absolutely loved the four swords manga! The only thing I wish was different about it was that Vaati didn't have to be in his demon eye form for the entire manga. I love his Hylian form too much! Sorry for the slow update, I hope this chapter was worth it!

**Lord Siravant ~ **Ahh yes Tingle is the creepiest guy ever O.O Woah, more terrifying of fleets version? Wow, that means a lot, thank you! (Heh, that's a good thing, right?)

**purplepanic ~ **Yup, Tingle is quite the creeper *.* Thank you so much! Actually, I think he cried in the four sword as well, but who can blame him? But yeah, it is the first time he's cried in front of anyone else, and he was absolutely mortified! Ah yes, a breakdown should be coming soon... He is lucky to have Lexi as a friend, though sometimes I'm unsire as to wether he always deserves her undying kindness. I believe I will write the Minish story, I've got it planned out somewhat and everything! If you want me to tell you more about it, just PM me with any questions you may have. I'd be happy to tell you all about it!

**Legendoffun ~ **Yup, I know right? Call 911! There's an insane Tingle on the loose! XD Thank you!

**Sorceress V ~ **Thank you so much! I know, I love Vaati when he rages too :) I'm so glad you liked this chapter, yay!

**Moonlightshadow13 ~ **Yes I know . I apologize for any trauma I may have caused ^.^'

**Guest ~ **Uhm, sorry, but who's Tobi...?


End file.
